| For most of his life, the artist Vincent van Gogh was | | | | schizophrenia, which he called "dementia praecox." |
| plagued by madness. His low quality of mental health | | | | This was revolutionary in the late 1880s, when most |
| detracted from his quality of life and his willingness to | | | | psychiatric disorders were lumped together into one |
| paint. So deep was van Gogh's suffering that he killed | | | | general category. Kraepelin recognized and |
| himself before he turned 40. Schizophrenia is a | | | | categorized the four types of this peculiar mental |
| ravaging, all-consuming mental illness that seriously | | | | illness. Paranoid, with fear and delusions, simple, |
| warps the mind of the afflicted. Some cases are so | | | | characterized by slow decline, catatonic, characterized |
| severe that the patient may need to be hospitalized. | | | | by laziness or lack of movement, and hebephrenic, |
| In recent years, schizophrenia research and | | | | similar to catatonic. Psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler coined |
| treatment has become more streamlined and | | | | the word "schizophrenia" in a medical journal in 1911. |
| technological and medical advancements have made | | | | Bleuler pointed out that schizophrenia was not a type |
| treatments more readily available to those who need | | | | of dementia as the patient did not present with brain |
| it. | | | | cell or neuron decay. Researchers and psychiatrists |
| Schizophrenia is believed to have been around about | | | | have discovered much about this disease since |
| as long as humans have. An ancient Egyptian medical | | | | Bleuler's time. |
| text called "The Book of Hearts" describes patients | | | | The symptoms of schizophrenia are variable in their |
| suffering from dementia, depression, and other | | | | manifestation and severity. The Los Angeles Times |
| mental disturbances that are conducive to a diagnosis | | | | recently reported on the tragic case of a six year old |
| of schizophrenia. Treatment involved bathing the | | | | girl named Jani. Jani was born with schizophrenia, |
| afflicted in specially purified waters. Roman and Greek | | | | which is extremely rare. She hallucinates visions of |
| scientists also recognized psychotic and psychiatric | | | | rats who tell her to injure her parents and younger |
| disorders in their writing. However, schizophrenia as | | | | siblings. Large doses of medication that would subdue |
| we recognize it today did not seem to manifest or | | | | any grown adult do nothing to curb her hallucinations. |
| was not noted in those societies. In the middle ages, | | | | On the other end of the spectrum are people whose |
| mental illnesses including schizophrenia were believed | | | | bouts of schizophrenia come in flares. These more |
| to be caused by demons possessing the body. | | | | mild cases may just consist of persistent agitation, |
| Treatment was notoriously unpleasant and included | | | | mood swings, or general malaise. Schizophrenia can |
| holes being drilled in the patient's skull in hopes of | | | | be treated with a combination of medication, |
| exorcising the evil demon. | | | | therapy, and hospitalization. Depending on the |
| German psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin was the first | | | | severity of the affliction and the patient's willingness |
| person to properly begin to differentiate between | | | | to take medication, some variations of schizophrenia |
| mental illnesses. He famously began to distinguish | | | | can be exceptionally difficult to treat. Science still has |
| manic depressive patients from patients with | | | | much to learn about this complex illness. |