Overview
3. Engagement in Meaningful Dialogue: Engage peers and faculty by asking questions and offering new insights, applications, perspectives, information, or implications for practice.
Question 1:
Professor Response
Your deep, multifaceted experience with PTSD—from military service to working with adolescents—offers a powerful and empathetic lens into trauma-informed care. Your integration of neuroscience and clinical application shows a clear commitment to holistic, compassionate mental health treatment.
How do you think emerging research in epigenetics could shape early intervention strategies for at-risk youth?
Question 2:
Peer Response
Schizophrenia is a psychiatric disorder that is covered in this course. It is also a disorder that is relevant to my nursing practice. I work in an outpatient mental health clinic and give long acting injectables that help combat the symptoms from this disorder.
Schizophrenia is a fascinating disorder that is life altering for those individuals affected. It is a diagnosis that has a much more positive prognosis now than in the past. It affects a number of clients at the clinic where I’m employed and a few of them, I have known for quite some time. I see their struggles and celebrate the accomplishments with them.
Schizophrenia affects less than 1% of the population and affects an almost equal number of males and females. Males may, however, experience earlier onset than females. Symptoms of schizophrenia usually present in early adulthood: men usually show initial symptoms in their late teens or early 20s and women usually show initial signs in their 20s and early 30s (Torres, 2024). There is currently no cure for this disorder, but antipsychotic medications help minimize or even eliminate symptoms.
Schizophrenia is the most common of psychiatric disorders and individuals with this disorder present with positive and negative symptoms. Positive symptoms include delusions, disorganized speech, and hallucinations. Negative symptoms include anhedonia and asociality. The evolution of psychotic symptoms involves the altered neurotransmission of dopamine, glutamate, and serotonin in the midbrain, hippocampus, corpus striatum, and in the prefrontal cortex. Proinflammatory cytokines may also play a role. Schizophrenia develops from a genetic predisposition and also environmental factors. Environmental factors include neonatal hypoxic events, nutritional deficiencies, and infections in early life such as herpes virus type 2 and rubella. Patients that are treated early see the best results long-term. There are many other psychiatric conditions and medical problems that can mimic some of the same symptoms of Schizophrenia. It is imperative that providers be vigilant in diagnosing Schizophrenia to initiate treatment as quickly as possible. Antipsychotic medications are used to treat positive and negative symptoms associated with this disorder. There are first- and second-generation antipsychotics (Crawford & Go, 2022). I see, firsthand, the devastation possible from this disorder. I have a general understanding of the pathophysiology of Schizophrenia but was surprised about some of the possible environmental factors that can contribute to the development of this disorder. I learn something new on a daily basis concerning mental health disorders.
Nothing too in depth just a basic response to the professors questions and just giving a response to the peers post. Just including one scholarly source within 5 years.