Can Schizophrenia Be Prevented? - Article Essay PDF

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Can Schizophrenia Be Prevented? The Effects of Environment on Mental Disorders is an Essay that aims to demonstrate if it is likely that environmental conditions interact with biological factors to make a person either more or less susceptible to schizophrenia. This essay answer questions such as; I...

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Can Schizophrenia Be Prevented?

Can Schizophrenia Be Prevented? The Effects of Environment on Mental Disorders Valencia College

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Can Schizophrenia Be Prevented?

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Can Schizophrenia Be Prevented? The Effects of Environment on Mental Disorders Is well-known that schizophrenia is a serious mental disorder which causes are unknown, but there are factors that are more likely to develop the condition. People may focus on the internal factors such as genetics. However, what about the external factors such as the environment? Is there any relationship between the neighborhood social environment and relapse? Can schizophrenia be prevented simply by having less exposure to stressful situations? Precedent researchers March, D., Hatch, S. L., Morgan, C., Kirkbride, J. B., Bresnahan, M., Fearon, P., & Susser, E. (2008). suggested that in urban areas the annual incidence of schizophrenia is twice as high as in rural areas. Further research carried out by Binbay, T., Drukker, M., Alptekin, K., Elbi, H., Tanık, F. A., Özkınay, F., Onay, H., Zağlı, N., & van Os, J. (2012). additionally, suggested that not only social environment-related qualities are related with the emergence of psychotic disorders, but the subthreshold symptoms and psychotic experiences as well. Taking all into account, this research from Unal, B., Akgul, O., Binbay, T., Alptekin, K., & Akdede, B. B. (2019). “predicted that the neighborhood social environment and relapse were thought to be effective in the develop of schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders.” The current study tries to increase the knowledge on this topic by helping us understand how the external factors such as the environment can be effective in the emergence of schizophrenia. Specifically, this study aims to investigate the relationship between variables of the social environment and relapses of patients.

Can Schizophrenia Be Prevented?

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Method Mixed methods were used to determine the relationship between relapses and wide and narrow social environments. Between January 1st and December 31st social capital levels from the neighborhood were received from a public survey, during this time patients were followed through for relapse, this can be considered case studies.

Participants The research sample consisted of 147 patients; patients were followed through for relapse indicators.

Statistics In the study, the researchers used chi-square test for categorical variables, and t-test was used for the pairwise comparison of continuous variables. The independent variables were considered the sociodemographic characteristics, wide social environment characteristics, and the dependent variable was considered the relapse history of the patients during the follow up period. Procedure In the study, what was evaluated were the wide social environment qualities, this was based on the neighborhood where the patient lived and where each patient lived during the subsequent period information was collected from the interviews. Discussion

Can Schizophrenia Be Prevented? According to the findings, the author’s interpretation of the data was that “no significant relationship was found between the social capital levels of the neighborhood which could be considered as wide social environment characteristic in schizophrenia and similar psychotic disorders” (Unal et al., 2019, p. 1). The cause and effect were neither determined for the same reason. In addition, one possible explanation for the unexpected results could be that the sample was not representative, the relatively small size of the research sample compared to previous researches on social capital may have resulted in a negligible relationship between social capital and relapses. To sum up everything that has been said, it is true that it is likely that environmental conditions interact with biological factors to make a person either more or less susceptible to the illness, but there is no association between the neighborhood social environment and relapse. The importance of the article is that although it appears that the neighborhood social environment and relapse were not effective in the emergence of schizophrenia, they are critical factors in people’s susceptibility to the disorder. Is important to recall that a positive family environment (narrow social environment) is protective for individuals with psychosis.

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Can Schizophrenia Be Prevented? References Binbay, T., Drukker, M., Alptekin, K., Elbi, H., Tanık, F. A., Özkınay, F., Onay, H., Zağlı, N., & van Os, J. (2012). Evidence that the wider social environment moderates the association between familial liability and psychosis spectrum outcome. Psychological Medicine, 42(12), 2499–2510. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0033291712000700 March, D., Hatch, S. L., Morgan, C., Kirkbride, J. B., Bresnahan, M., Fearon, P., & Susser, E. (2008). Psychosis and Place. Epidemiologic Reviews, 30(1), 84–100. https://doi.org/10.1093/epirev/mxn006 Unal, B., Akgul, O., Binbay, T., Alptekin, K., & Akdede, B. B. (2019). Effect of Wider Social Environment on Relapses in Schizophrenia: A Six-Year Follow-Up Study. Archives of Neuropsychiatry, 1. https://doi.org/10.29399/npa.23619

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