Recovery from Schizophrenia

Recovery from Schizophrenia
Author: Richard Warner
Publisher: Psychology Press
Total Pages: 410
Release: 2004
Genre: Deinstitutionalization
ISBN: 0415212677

'Recovery from Schizophrenia' demonstrates convincingly, but controversially, how political, economic and labour market forces shape social responses to the mentally ill, mould psychiatric treatment philosophy, and influence the onset and course of one of the most common forms of mental illness.

Hidden Valley Road

Hidden Valley Road
Author: Robert Kolker
Publisher: Anchor
Total Pages: 427
Release: 2020-04-07
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0385543778

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • ONE OF GQ's TOP 50 BOOKS OF LITERARY JOURNALISM IN THE 21st CENTURY • The heartrending story of a midcentury American family with twelve children, six of them diagnosed with schizophrenia, that became science's great hope in the quest to understand the disease. "Reads like a medical detective journey and sheds light on a topic so many of us face: mental illness." —Oprah Winfrey Don and Mimi Galvin seemed to be living the American dream. After World War II, Don's work with the Air Force brought them to Colorado, where their twelve children perfectly spanned the baby boom: the oldest born in 1945, the youngest in 1965. In those years, there was an established script for a family like the Galvins--aspiration, hard work, upward mobility, domestic harmony--and they worked hard to play their parts. But behind the scenes was a different story: psychological breakdown, sudden shocking violence, hidden abuse. By the mid-1970s, six of the ten Galvin boys, one after another, were diagnosed as schizophrenic. How could all this happen to one family? What took place inside the house on Hidden Valley Road was so extraordinary that the Galvins became one of the first families to be studied by the National Institute of Mental Health. Their story offers a shadow history of the science of schizophrenia, from the era of institutionalization, lobotomy, and the schizophrenogenic mother to the search for genetic markers for the disease, always amid profound disagreements about the nature of the illness itself. And unbeknownst to the Galvins, samples of their DNA informed decades of genetic research that continues today, offering paths to treatment, prediction, and even eradication of the disease for future generations. With clarity and compassion, bestselling and award-winning author Robert Kolker uncovers one family's unforgettable legacy of suffering, love, and hope.

Schizophrenia in the 21st Century

Schizophrenia in the 21st Century
Author: T.H.J. Burne
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
Total Pages: 198
Release: 2012-03-23
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 9535103156

Schizophrenia is a poorly understood but very disabling group of brain disorders. While hallucinations and delusions (positive symptoms of schizophrenia) feature prominently in diagnostic criteria, impairments of memory and attentional processing (cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia) are attracting increasing interest in modern neuropsychiatry. Schizophrenia in the 21st Century brings together recent findings on this group of devastating disorders. We are still a long way from having effective treatment options, particularly for cognitive symptoms, and lack effective interventions and ways to prevent this disease. This volume covers various current options for therapy, clinical research into cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia and preclinical research in animal models.

Defining Psychopathology in the 21st Century

Defining Psychopathology in the 21st Century
Author: John E. Helzer
Publisher: American Psychiatric Pub
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2008-08-13
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 1585627690

Among today's astounding research discoveries, perhaps the most fascinating is the mapping of the human genome and its implications for a vastly improved understanding of how genes affect our physiology and behavior. With that understanding comes a critical need to establish a diagnostic taxonomy for psychiatric illness that is more precise but still clinically relevant. This volume responds to that need. It highlights the shortcomings of current categorical diagnoses, such as those used in DSM-IV, for future research needs in behavioral disorders in general and psychiatric genetics in particular. With a chapter by each distinguished neuroscientist who presented at the 2000 American Psychopathological Association (APPA) meeting, this volume is divided into four sections: Definitional Tensions, which discusses the difficulties with the current categorical diagnostic system; Imaging Psychopathology, which presents research demonstrating how imaging technologies can tremendously improve our illness definitions; Longitudinal Studies, which details what we can learn from epidemiological and other longitudinal studies; and Exploring Alternatives, which discusses the application of dimensional classification systems in genetics research in psychopathology, with a fascinating chapter on using new methodologies for treating subsyndromal or pre-schizophrenia, a taxonomic condition defined herein as "schizotaxia." This unique collection represents a significant step in developing approaches to classification that will lead to more accurate diagnoses and treatments for patients and a broader range of taxonomic options for researchers. As such, it will also be welcomed by psychiatric clinicians and educators, as well as by anyone interested in genetics and how it governs human behavior.

Nobody's Normal: How Culture Created the Stigma of Mental Illness

Nobody's Normal: How Culture Created the Stigma of Mental Illness
Author: Roy Richard Grinker
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 448
Release: 2021-01-26
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 0393531651

A compassionate and captivating examination of evolving attitudes toward mental illness throughout history and the fight to end the stigma. For centuries, scientists and society cast moral judgments on anyone deemed mentally ill, confining many to asylums. In Nobody’s Normal, anthropologist Roy Richard Grinker chronicles the progress and setbacks in the struggle against mental-illness stigma—from the eighteenth century, through America’s major wars, and into today’s high-tech economy. Nobody’s Normal argues that stigma is a social process that can be explained through cultural history, a process that began the moment we defined mental illness, that we learn from within our communities, and that we ultimately have the power to change. Though the legacies of shame and secrecy are still with us today, Grinker writes that we are at the cusp of ending the marginalization of the mentally ill. In the twenty-first century, mental illnesses are fast becoming a more accepted and visible part of human diversity. Grinker infuses the book with the personal history of his family’s four generations of involvement in psychiatry, including his grandfather’s analysis with Sigmund Freud, his own daughter’s experience with autism, and culminating in his research on neurodiversity. Drawing on cutting-edge science, historical archives, and cross-cultural research in Africa and Asia, Grinker takes readers on an international journey to discover the origins of, and variances in, our cultural response to neurodiversity. Urgent, eye-opening, and ultimately hopeful, Nobody’s Normal explains how we are transforming mental illness and offers a path to end the shadow of stigma.

Neurodevelopment and Schizophrenia

Neurodevelopment and Schizophrenia
Author: Matcheri S. Keshavan
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 576
Release: 2004-11-18
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 9780521823319

This book was originally published in 2004 and concerns developmental neurobiology. In the decade preceding publication, developmental neurobiology made important strides towards elucidating the pathophysiology of psychiatric disorders. Nowhere has this link between basic science and clinical insights become clearer than in the field of schizophrenia research. Each contributor to this volume provides a fresh overview of the relevant research, including directions for further investigation. The book begins with a section on advances in developmental neurobiology. This is followed by sections on etiological and pathophysiological developments, and models that integrate this knowledge. The final section addresses the clinical insights that emerge from the developmental models. This book will be valuable to researchers in psychiatry and neurobiology, students in psychology, and all mental health practitioners.

The Collected Schizophrenias

The Collected Schizophrenias
Author: Esmé Weijun Wang
Publisher: Penguin UK
Total Pages: 175
Release: 2019-06-27
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0141991542

'Dazzling ... in her kaleidoscopic essays, memoir has been shattered into sliding and overlapping pieces ... mind-expanding' The New York Times Book Review Esmé Weijun Wang was officially diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder in 2013, although the hallucinations and psychotic episodes had started years before that. In the midst of a high functioning life at Yale, Stanford and the literary world, she would find herself floored by an overwhelming terror that 'spread like blood', or convinced that she was dead, or that her friends were robots, or spiders were eating holes in her brain. What happens when your whole conception of yourself is turned upside down? When you're aware of what is occurring to you, but unable to do anything about it? Written with immediacy and unflinching honesty, this visceral and moving book is Wang's story, as she steps both inside and outside of her condition to bring it to light. Following her own diagnosis and the many manifestations of schizophrenia in her life, she ranges over everything from how we label mental illness to her own use of fashion and make-up to present herself as high-functioning, from the failures of the higher education system to how factors such as PTSD and Lyme disease compounded her experiences. Wang's analytical, intelligent eye, honed as a former lab researcher at Stanford, allows her to balance research with haunting personal narrative. The Collected Schizophrenias cuts right to the core and provides unique insight into a condition long misdiagnosed and much misunderstood.

Brave New Brain

Brave New Brain
Author: Nancy C. Andreasen
Publisher:
Total Pages: 392
Release: 2004
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 9780195167283

Here, leading neuroscientist Nancy Andreasen offers a state-of-the-art look at what we know about the human brain and the human genome--and shows how these two vast branches of knowledge are coming together in a boldly ambitious effort to conquer mental illness. Andreasen gives us an engaging and readable description of how it all works---from billions of neurons, to the tiny thalamus, to the moral monitor in our prefrontal cortex. She shows the progress made in mapping the human genome, whose 30,000 to 40,000 genes are almost all active in the brain. We read gripping stories of the people who develop mental illness, the friends and relatives who share their suffering, the physicians who treat them, and the scientists who study them so that better treatments can be found. Four major disorders are covered--schizophrenia, manic depression, anxiety disorders, and dementia--revealing what causes them and how they affect the mind and brain. Finally, the book shows how the powerful tools of genetics and neuroscience will be combined during the next decades to build healthier brains and minds. By revealing how combining genome mapping with brain mapping can unlock the mysteries of mental illness, Andreasen offers a remarkably fresh perspective on these devastating diseases.

Neuroscience in the 21st Century

Neuroscience in the 21st Century
Author: Donald W. Pfaff
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2016-10-27
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 9781493934737

Edited and authored by a wealth of international experts in neuroscience and related disciplines, this key new resource aims to offer medical students and graduate researchers around the world a comprehensive introduction and overview of modern neuroscience. Neuroscience research is certain to prove a vital element in combating mental illness in its various incarnations, a strategic battleground in the future of medicine, as the prevalence of mental disorders is becoming better understood each year. Hundreds of millions of people worldwide are affected by mental, behavioral, neurological and substance use disorders. The World Health Organization estimated in 2002 that 154 million people globally suffer from depression and 25 million people from schizophrenia; 91 million people are affected by alcohol use disorders and 15 million by drug use disorders. A more recent WHO report shows that 50 million people suffer from epilepsy and 24 million from Alzheimer’s and other dementias. Because neuroscience takes the etiology of disease—the complex interplay between biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors—as its object of inquiry, it is increasingly valuable in understanding an array of medical conditions. A recent report by the United States’ Surgeon General cites several such diseases: schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, early-onset depression, autism, attention deficit/ hyperactivity disorder, anorexia nervosa, and panic disorder, among many others. Not only is this volume a boon to those wishing to understand the future of neuroscience, it also aims to encourage the initiation of neuroscience programs in developing countries, featuring as it does an appendix full of advice on how to develop such programs. With broad coverage of both basic science and clinical issues, comprising around 150 chapters from a diversity of international authors and including complementary video components, Neuroscience in the 21st Century in its second edition serves as a comprehensive resource to students and researchers alike.

Henry's Demons

Henry's Demons
Author: Patrick Cockburn
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2012-02-14
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1439154716

Narrated by both Henry Cockburn and his father Patrick, this is the extraordinary story of the eight years since Henry's descent into schizophrenia- years he has spent almost entirely in hospitals- and his family's struggle to help him recover.