New Findings
Schizophrenia affects about 1 per cent of the United States population; it is quite a complex disorder to understand and diagnose. The cause of Schizophrenia is still unknown, but it is theorized that genes may play a big role in the development of this psychological disorder. It is difficult to diagnose because of the interrelation with other psychological disorders such as Bipolar. Some symptoms include auditory hallucinations, disturbed thought processes, and difficulty identifying real from unreal.New research suggests "impairments in the early stages of sensory information processing are associated with a constellation of abnormalities in schizophrenia patients". This research was conducted by Gregory Light, an associate professor of psychiatry at University of California San Diego,and consisted of recording patterns of electrical activity of 410 schizophrenia patients. he used 247 non psychiatric subjects to compare with the schizophrenia patients. His findings showed reduced activity of certain areas of the medial frontal lobe in schizophrenia patients when exposed to changes in auditory tones. According to the research findings, this suggests that there may be relationship between impairments in sensory information processing and schizophrenia. This new research may be groundbreaking in the search for the cause of schizophrenia. May it be possible to detect this impairment and be able to somehow "prevent" the development of this disorder?
Take a look at this video of Heather, a schizophrenia patient:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121130222143.htm
What I find interesting about schizophrenia is that with how severe it can be, you would think we'd know more by now, but it's hard to separate this from other mood disorders making it hard to diagnose, and other than the characteristics you mentioned before there isn't much else known about schizophrenia and how to be able to positively without doubt diagnose someone with it.
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