Custom essays on Diagnosis of Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a serious psychiatric health problem. At the same time, the diagnosing of schizophrenia may arise serious problems because symptoms of schizophrenia may coincide with side-effects of some medicaments used in the course of the treatment of psychiatric disorders. However, the accurate diagnosis of schizophrenia is very important because the failure to diagnose the development of this mental health problem can lead to extremely negative results for the treatment of schizophrenia is extremely difficult, especially if patients do not receive treatment in time.
On analyzing the problem of a psychiatric diagnosis and diversity of views of this problem, it is primarily necessary to point out the fact that a psychiatric diagnosis is the key element of the modern psychiatry and without an accurate and adequate psychiatric diagnosis it is virtually impossible to develop a plan of an effective treatment of patients with mental health problems and implement this plan in the actual treatment of patients (Breeding, 2000). In such a context, the question concerning the necessity of a psychiatric diagnosis raises. In order to answer this question, it is necessary to refer to possible risks which mental health problems may bring to patients as well as to their social environment.
Traditionally, mental health problems were associated with the concept of abnormality and, therefore, psychiatric or mental health problems were viewed as a deviation from the norm in the mental state, behavior and reactions of an individual on the surrounding world (Harmon, 2004). In other words, psychiatry defines mental health illnesses as various deviations from a norm. In this respect, it is important to underline that some of such deviations may be extremely dangerous. For instance, the development of such a mental health illness as schizophrenia is accompanied by hallucinations, which may provoke an inadequate behavior of patients (Breeding 2000). Moreover, often the development of such mental illness can affect the social behavior of an individual to the extent that a patient suffering from schizophrenia can cause serious harm to the health of surrounding people. There are frequent cases when patients with schizophrenia or other serious mental health problem injured members of their families or absolutely strange, unfamiliar people under the impact of or in the result of their mental health problems.
In such a situation, the accurate diagnosis of schizophrenia should be grounded on the complex of symptoms that are typical for schizophrenia (Breeding, 2002). What is meant here is the fact that no single symptom is specific for schizophrenia. This is why health care professionals should focus on the presence of several symptoms. In this respect, it is particularly important to focus on active flare-ups which are lasting for one month or more. In fact, hallucinations, delusion and other flare-ups, which are lasting for a month or more is one of the main symptoms of schizophrenia. In addition, health care professionals should take into consideration if patients have particularly bizarre hallucinations or delusions. Moreover, if certain symptoms are present for six months or more, the patient is likely to suffer from schizophrenia.

References:
Breeding, J. (2002). “The right to know, the right to remember: informed consent for electroshock is still a sham”. Mind Freedom Journal Winter: 25–26.
Breeding, J. (2000). “Electroshock and informed consent”. Journal of Humanistic Psychology 40: 65–79.
Harmon, A. (May 9, 2004), “Neurodiversity Forever; The Disability Movement Turns to Brains”, The New York Times