What Is Schizophrenia?
Schizophrenia can be defined as a severe brain disorder
in which its victims abnormally interpret reality. People with schizophrenia
show symptoms of hallucinations, delusions, thought disorders represented by
uncommon thought processes, and movement disorders where patients express
frantic body movements. Schizophrenics also suffer from disrupted emotions and
behaviors that lead the patient to be dissatisfied with everyday life and lack
the ability to endure planned activities. People with schizophrenia often speak
without making sense and may sit for extended periods of time without moving.
They also express cognitive symptoms such as experiencing difficulty
understanding information and paying attention and suffer from memory problems.
Therefore, Schizophrenics have difficulty holding jobs and caring for
themselves.
Schizophrenia occurs around the world and affects men and
women equally. The disease occurs in all ethnic groups at comparable rates.
Symptoms commonly arise between the ages of 16 and 30. Schizophrenia rarely
occurs in children and usually does not occur in people over the age of 45.
Schizophrenia may be difficult to detect in teenagers due to early
schizophrenia symptoms, such as irritability, trouble sleeping, a decline in
school performance, and feelings of withdrawal from friends and family, being
common in this age group. Additionally, men often experience symptoms earlier
in life than women.
The causes of schizophrenia are not known. However
research has led to conclusions of schizophrenia being influenced by genetics
and environmental factors. Complications with chemicals in the brain and
neurotransmitters, dopamine and glutamate, may contribute to the development of
schizophrenia. Studies involving neuroimaging compare the brain structure and
central nervous system of people affected with schizophrenia to those not
affected. The comparisons lead schizophrenia to be thought of as a brain
disease. With this, people diagnosed
with schizophrenia have differences in their brains. Some differences are the
larger fluid-filled cavities in the center of the brain, less gray matter, and
some areas of the brain experiencing more, or sometimes less, brain activity.
Moreover, Schizophrenia has been known to run in
families. Chances of developing the disorder are higher in people who have
first-degree relatives with schizophrenia. Using this, scientists consider
several genes to be linked with a higher risk of developing schizophrenia, with
no single gene causing the disease in its own. Research has found that people
with the disease have higher rates of genetic mutations, which concern hundreds
of genes that may disrupt brain development.
According to the National Institutes of Health, studies propose that
schizophrenia may result when a gene that is imperative to making brain
chemicals errors. Scientists also believe that schizophrenia may develop when
there are certain interactions between genes and the environment. Environmental
factors such as the introduction of viruses, malnutrition before birth, and
problems during birth may contribute to the development of schizophrenia later
in life.
Today, it is still unknown what causes schizophrenia.
From that, doctors have to treat symptoms instead of the root problem. To
do so, doctors prescribe antipsychotic medicines such as chlorpromazine,
haloperidol, perphenazine, and fluphenazine. These medicines are older,
so doctors refer to them as typical antipsychotics. More recently
developed antipsychotics are referred to as atypical, and examples of these are
risperidone, olanzapine, quetiapine, ziprasidone, aripiprazole, and
paliperidone. With all medications, there is a possibility for side
effects. With these antipsychotics, possible side effects are dizziness,
drowsiness, blurred vision, rapid heartbeat, skin rashes, sensitivity to
sunlight, and menstrual problems for women. Atypical antipsychotic
medications can cause additional problems, including weight gain and metabolic
changes. These side effects can lead to an increased chance of the
development of diabetes and high cholesterol. Typical antipsychotics also
have specific side effects. These antipsychotics can cause problems with
physical movement, such as muscle spasms, rigidity, restlessness, and
tremors. Long term use of these typical antipsychotics can cause tardive
dyskinesia, which is a condition where a person makes movements they cannot
control. This condition usually affects muscles around the mouth.
Psychosocial treatment can also be utilized to
help patients cope with every day challenges due to their illness (every day
care, work, communication, etc.). Family education can also be helpful in
treating a patient. By working with therapists, families can find ways to
develop good coping and problem solving skills for the family and their
affected loved one. Cognitive behavioral therapy can also be used to help
patients learn to cope with symptoms of their disease that do not go away with
the use of their medications. Self-help groups can also be good for those
with schizophrenia as it gives them another support group to help them feel
like they are not alone and find ways to network with each other.
The following link provides an insight into what
life is like for schizophrenic. It describes the life a young girl named Jani
who was diagnosed with full blown schizophrenia by the age of six along with
other children that currently live with this diagnosis.
The
following images compare the brains of normal people to people who suffer from
schizophrenia.
What Is Grid-Computing?
Grid-computing is a new computing technology that is now
being used to help find cures for many different diseases, global warming, and
many other types of scientific research. With this technology, any
technological device that uses a computer brain can be voluntarily signed up to
be used to compute different problems. With the amassed computational
power obtained by combining the power of many electronic devices, the
computational power created is greater than the power of a supercomputer.
Basically, a problem is first identified by a scientist/researcher. Once
identified, the work of solving the problem is split up into different pieces
that are all processed at the same time by many different computational devices
during their “idle” time (in the background). By doing so, every possible
way of solving the problem is addressed quickly, reducing the time it takes to
research a problem from years to months. Not only is this a more
efficient way of performing research, but it is also less expensive, allowing
money to be allocated to other things.
What Is Our
Contribution to Schizophrenia?
We will be contributing to the study of Schizophrenia by
taking a part of the Mind Modeling grid by downloading its section in the GPU Grid. Mind Modeling is a nonprofit organization that
is based in based in Dayton, OH at the Wright State University and the
University of Dayton Research Institute. This project not only looks at
Schizophrenia but it also focuses on different cognitive problems in order to
increase the knowledge of cognitive science. It is geared towards understanding
the different cognitive processes that enable human interaction in order to
gain a better insight of the human mind. The section of the GPU Grid from Mind Modeling that we will be contributing to will be assessing the affects of sodium ions have in the binding of anti-psychotic drugs to D2 Dopamine receptors. Understanding these interactions will be very helpful in future drugs created to treat schizophrenia. Our computer will be simulating the effects of sodium ions on dopamine receptors in the brain under psychological ionic strength conditions.
Web Resources:
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/schizophrenia/index.shtml?utm_source=publish2&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=www.kpbs.orghttp://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/schizophrenia/basics/definition/con-20021077
http://www.gpugrid.net/science.php?topic=brain
Great job, guys! You addressed everything fully and included links, pic's, and references. However, I was under the impression that you were able to run the GPUGrid rather than mindmodeling. Is that the case? If so, that portion of your post will need to be modified.
ReplyDeleteWell done! 15 out of 15 if appropriate changes are made.
-Dr. Walker