Quote:
Originally Posted by townie_80
Reading some of these comments makes me sick. My dad was schizophrenic. Not something I talk about to even my closest friends. Because the stigma in our society is so bad. My dad was not a monster. He was once a loving husband, son and dad. The demons that got in his head were his undoing. He once told my mom he had to go for a while because the voices were telling him to do terrible things. He went off to the woods and camped for three weeks alone. It terrifies me to think of what could have been had he not realized he needed to go. These psychotic episodes can just happen at any time. It's so unfair to judge the parents for not handing him over for help. And the help in this province is not exactly great.
For those saying he will get off and live some happy life while everyone else involved suffers. Let me tell you that living with this disorder does not make for a happy life. My dad is no longer with us but I can say that the last 25 years of his life were not living. It was torture for him and it was torture for all who loved him.
This whole case is absolutely devastating. There will be justice for no one. I can't see how living life with schizophrenia is just. Sometimes life is awful and unfair and people end up suffering and there can be no justice. If he is found to be insane I really hope people understand that he is not a monster. And for those who still do - I sincerely hope that no one in your family ever has to suffer from this.
|
If DeGrood is actually schizophrenic I agree, an MRI test would be better than a verbal evaluation. Patients with schizophrenia show different structural patterns that inhibit critical thinking and self management let alone the painful delusions and hallucinations that go along with cortex degradation.
"Significant Loss of Brain Gray Matter: Individuals with schizophrenia, including those who have never been treated, have a reduced volume of gray matter in the brain, especially in the temporal and frontal lobes. Recently neuroscientists have detected gray matter loss of up to 25% (in some areas). The damage started in the parietal, or outer, regions of the brain but spread to the rest of the brain over a five year period. Patients with the worst brain tissue loss also had the worst symptoms, which included hallucinations, delusions, bizarre and psychotic thoughts, hearing voices, and depression."
http://www.schizophrenia.com/disease.htm
A Sample of Recent Relevant Research:
Ventricular enlargement in schizophrenia related to volume reduction of the thalamus, striatum, and superior temporal cortex, Am J Psychiatry. 2004 Jan;161(1):154-6.
Association between minor physical anomalies and lateral ventricular enlargement in childhood and adolescent onset schizophrenia, Acta Psychiatr Scand. 2003 Aug;108(2):147-51
Progressive structural brain abnormalities and their relationship to clinical outcome: a longitudinal magnetic resonance imaging study early in schizophrenia. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2003 Jun;60(6):585-94.
Cerebral ventricular enlargement as a generalized feature of schizophrenia: a distribution analysis on 502 subjects., Schizophr Res. 2000 Jul 7;44(1):25-34.
Van Horn JD, McManus IC. Ventricular enlargement in schizophrenia. A meta-analysis of studies of the ventricle:brain ratio (VBR). British Journal of Psychiatry 160:687–697, 1992.
Soares JC, Mann JJ. The anatomy of mood disorders: review of structural neuroimaging studies. Biological Psychiatry 41:86–106, 1997.
Elkis H, Friedman L, Wise A, et al. Meta-analyses of studies of ventricular enlargement and cortical sulcal prominence in mood disorders. Comparisons with controls or patients with schizophrenia. Archives of General Psychiatry 52:735–746, 1995.