t it:
Ensuring that women have the best possible information from their health care providers is crucial...the whole of a woman's life needs to be considered when weighing a woman's best interests. While a psychiatrist can help identify an illness as well as the treatment for it, women with schizophrenia are affected in every area of their lives. We have to look at all of that to provide effective treatment to facilitate recovery...Trying to address and, ideally, overcome the dilemmas that arise from the illness and its treatment -- those that affect nearly all facets of a woman's life -- is an ongoing challenge.... (Chernomas, Clarke & Chisholm, 2000, p.2).
While there are several theoretical accounts of the causation of schizophrenia (e.g., psychodynamic theories, biogenetic theories, cognitive theories, etc.), some of the newest and most encompassing frameworks are developmental. Cotter and Pariante (2002), for example, discuss the neurodevelopmental hypothesis of schizophrenia which proposes that an early insult to the developing brain results in brain changes that are fixed and non-progressive. These changes are said to lie dormant until made manifest in adolescence or early adulthood. According to Cotter and Pariante, developmental theory has been fairly well accepted because of its ability to explain multiple and well-established features of schizophrenia. Moreover, the authors point out that there is substantial research supporting the theory.
However, there is evidence now that at least some brain changes occur that are not developmental in the traditional sense. These changes may be specific not only to schizophrenia but to other mental disorders as well. Cotter and Pariante (2002) assert that the changes may be due to the stress engendered by having to live with mental disorders but this claim is only assumptive and has not been thoroughly researched. Thus, while the newest and most accepted theories tend to be d...