Life Examined
Schizophrenia: A new day in diagnosis and treatment
For hundreds of years, doctors and scientists have grappled with understanding schizophrenia. It’s a mysterious mental illness characterized by delusions, hallucinations, paranoia, and disorganized speech.
By Jonathan Bastian • • 52m ListenFor hundreds of years, doctors and scientists have grappled with understanding schizophrenia. It’s a mysterious mental illness characterized by delusions, hallucinations, paranoia, and disorganized speech. Until the middle of the 20th century, treatment for severe cases would land someone in a mental institution and on heavy medication. Even more brutal were things like organ removal, lobotomies and castration. Understanding what caused the condition remained rudimentary, and there was a period when therapists blamed parents, and especially mothers, for contributing to the condition.
KCRW hears the heartbreaking yet ultimately inspiring story of the Galvin family, where six out of their 12 children developed schizophrenia. Also, mapping the human genome has ushered in a massive sea change in the diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric disorders, helping put mental illness and schizophrenia in the mainstream of biomedical research.
In this episode
2 storiesA touching account of one American family’s struggle with schizophrenia
On the surface, the Galvins were the model American family. Parents Mimi and Don lived in Colorado Springs in the 1950s and 60s and had 12 children, 10 boys and two girls. Don Galvin was an instructor at the Air Force Academy.
Read the story28 minThe genetic component in understanding and treating mental illness
Schizophrenia is a chronic neurological brain disorder that affects millions of people around the world.
Read the story24 min
