Mental Disorder: Schizophrenia

Background and Significance Paper
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Introduction
Mental disorders and conditions such as schizophrenia are a major concern worldwide not only because of the financial and emotional pressure they instill on the affected and their families but also because they usually lead to death if proper treatment is not administered. It is estimated that schizophrenia affects about 1% of all adults globally with some of the symptoms becoming visible in individuals between the ages of 16 and 30 years. It is a chronic mental disorder that disorientates a person’s ability to think, feel and behave accordingly. As such, one notable symptom of schizophrenia is psychosis. Some of the risk factors for psychosis are demographics, social factors, persecutory delusions, command hallucinations, co-morbid antisocial personality pathology, substance use, poor insight, treatment non-adherence, and physiological factors. Psychosis impacts an individual’s cognitive abilities and makes them to see, hear and believe imaginary things. These risk factors and symptoms expose psychotic patients to commit acts of aggression relative to the general public and patients with other psychiatric conditions. These aggressive behaviors and acts of violence within inpatient psychiatric settings pose significant public health concerns that not only affect patients and their families but even treating physicians. Therefore, it has been proposed that understanding aggressive behaviors and violence in psychosis may provide a clue in its prevention and treatment, reduce stigma, and enhance the legal position of patients with schizophrenia. This background and significance paper seeks to examine in-depth on aggressive behaviors and violence in psychotic and schizophrenic patients and provide possible solutions.
Background and Significance
Schizophrenia is one of the deadliest mental disorders that impacts individuals during late adolescence and early childhood. Statistics indicate that it impacts about 1% of the global population (Reinharth, Reynolds, Dill, & Serper, 2014). Schizophrenic patients are characterized by various symptoms and key among them being psychosis. Psychotic patients tend to act contrary to the norm and seem to have lost touch with some aspects of reality. As such, they are plagued by hallucinations, delusions, thought and movement disorders. Hallucinations are evidenced by seeing and hearing imaginary things and voices respectively (Reinharth, Reynolds, Dill, & Serper, 2014). Some of the psychotic patients start to believe that they not only have super powers but that outside forces are in control. Schizophrenic patients experiencing psychosis also tend to isolate themselves and fail to exhibit any emotional feelings. Several risk factors contribute to the onset of psychosis. Some medical experts have proposed that psychosis is a product of genetic inheritance. Studies have shown that the risk of suffering from psychosis increases by 10% if one of the parents was diagnosed with the disease (Reinharth, Reynolds, Dill, & Serper, 2014). Chemical imbalance in the brain is also another factor that may causes psychosis. Other risk factors include injuries and illnesses, trauma, and abuse of drugs such as marijuana, LSD and alcohol. Based on the severity of psychotic episodes, psychiatric intensive care units (PICU) have been primarily established to treat behavioral disturbances including acts of violence and aggressive threats. According to Iversen, Aasen, Güzey & Helvik (2016), some of the common forms of violence witnessed in PICU include “verbal threats, physical threats, attack on objects and attack on persons”.
Historical and Societal Perspective
As it was mentioned in the previous section, psychosis is a major symptom of schizophrenia that is characterized by aggressive behaviors and acts of violence. Statistics indicate that over 1.2% of the US population has been diagnosed with schizophrenia (Porcelli, et al., 2016). Similarly, over 2 million people are diagnosed with the disease annually worldwide. Although some of its effects such as hallucinations and delusions showcase in early adulthood, they can become a lifelong struggle if the condition is not treated properly. Schizophrenia was first identified as a mental illness in the late 19th century and all those affected were isolated from the rest in society. Family members and friends to these patients were afraid of interacting with psychotic individuals particularly when they had exhibited early signs of being violent. Since there lacked effective means of treatment to address the conditions and symptoms such as psychosis, patients were left to suffer until their deaths. Despite positive progressions in the health care sector and in the treatment of psychosis and schizophrenia, discrimination and stigmatization of psychotic patients is still rampant (Porcelli, et al., 2016). It is as a result that psychiatric centers are being established every so often to meet the increasing number of patients who are being “put away” by their loved ones because they are considered violent and a danger to others in the community. Reports indicate that almost all families in the US have at least one member in a psychiatric ward receiving treatment for their “bad temper”. Consequently, there is a misunderstanding on the root causes and effects of psychosis and utter failure in the administration of proper treatment.
Assessment of the Phenomena
Several factors contribute to aggressive behaviors in psychotic and schizophrenic patients in acute psychiatric centers. First a lack of awareness of the mental disorder causes them to become agitated and act out at the slightest of provocation. Many people around the world are ill-advised about various aspects of psychosis including its signs and symptoms, impacts on their health and safety and effective treatment measures at their disposal (Lamsma & Harte, 2015). Secondly, psychotic patients are also in denial and often fail to acknowledge the fact that they are seeing and hearing imaginary things and voices. As such, they tend to be displeased and lash out at all people who attempt to question their actions. Thirdly, continued exposure to some of the environmental factors such as stressful experiences that contributed to their conditions also results in them being aggressive (Lamsma & Harte, 2015). For instance, an individual who suffered from schizophrenia after losing their job and fails to obtain another for a significant amount of time is likely to become violent and psychotic. The person will be angry at the world and will show their frustrations and bad-temper in their actions including breaking items and confronting people close to them. Similarly, a psychotic person who continues to engage in drug abuse is also likely to become aggressive (Lamsma & Harte, 2015). Last but not least, psychotic patients are also pushed to become violent because of stigmatization and discrimination in society. They are shunned, treated as outskirts and consequently, forced to live in isolation. Eventually, they are filled with hatred towards all people in society and confront them with violence.
These acts of violence and aggression among psychotic and schizophrenic patients are characterized by the throwing of tantrums, breaking items and even attacking individuals who have their best interests at heart including family members, friends and attending physicians. They are also a risk to their safety. Some of these individuals tend to injure themselves and even worse commit suicide (Dongen, Buck, & Marleb, 2016). Based on these acts of aggression, psychotic patients are shunned and discriminated in society and in so doing; fail to receive proper treatment and care. It is estimated that 10 to 13% of psychiatric patients kill themselves globally (Dongen, Buck, & Marleb, 2016). Other factors that contribute to excess mortality in psychotic patients include accidents, diseases and homelessness. Nonetheless, aggressive behaviors and acts of violence are common among psychotic and schizophrenic patients. It is, therefore, important to understand these psychotic behaviors to initiate effective prevention and treatment measures, reduce stigma and enhance the legal position of all patients.
Assessment and Prevalence
Research indicates that many families usually institutionalize their loved ones into psychiatric centers once they start to showcase these adverse and aggressive episodes of psychosis. The aim is to put them in facilities with skilled and experienced individuals who can not only manage their violent tempers but also administer quality treatment. There are over 4000 state psychiatric hospitals situated in different states across the US that address a variety of mental health complications including psychosis and schizophrenia (Iversen, Aasen, Güzey & Helvik, 2016). However, it is essential to note that despite their skill sets and levels of experiences staff injuries caused by patient-staff incidences are quite common...