Schizophrenia
The Genain Quadruplets
The Genain Quadruplets are sisters who are identical quadruplets. The Genain Quadruplets, Genain, a false name used to protect the family’s identity, which came from the Greek term meaning “dire birth.” The false names of the girls are as follows Nora, Iris, Myra, and Hester (named from oldest to youngest), these names were chosen to resemble the four letters in NIMH, the National Institute of Mental Health. Each sister was diagnosed with schizophrenia at different ages and each case of schizophrenia is at different levels of severity. Nora, the oldest, is sometimes identified as the brightest of the four girls, was hospitalized at age 22 and never lived independently for an extended period of time. Iris, the second sister, spent 12 years in a psychiatric hospital starting at the age of 22. Myra, the third sister, is the only one to marry and have children. She did not experience delusions or hallucinations until she was in her forties, so it is questioned if she has schizoaffective disorder (Schizoaffective disorder is a condition in which a person experiences a combination of schizophrenia symptoms such as hallucinations or delusions and of mood disorder symptoms, such as depression) or if she has schizophrenia like the rest of her sisters. Hester, the youngest sister, is the most severely ill. She was taken out of school in the eleventh grade and never worked outside the home. There are many factors that could explain why each sister has a different level of severity of schizophrenia. One of the factors includes the treatment of the children when they were younger. Since they were identical they shared the same genes, explaining why they all were diagnosed with schizophrenia, because the odds of being diagnosed with schizophrenia if a sibling already has it is close to 1in 2. The question raised in my mind is why the schizophrenia has different levels of severity in each daughter. With more research I learned that the quadruplets
The Genain Quadruplets are sisters who are identical quadruplets. The Genain Quadruplets, Genain, a false name used to protect the family’s identity, which came from the Greek term meaning “dire birth.” The false names of the girls are as follows Nora, Iris, Myra, and Hester (named from oldest to youngest), these names were chosen to resemble the four letters in NIMH, the National Institute of Mental Health. Each sister was diagnosed with schizophrenia at different ages and each case of schizophrenia is at different levels of severity. Nora, the oldest, is sometimes identified as the brightest of the four girls, was hospitalized at age 22 and never lived independently for an extended period of time. Iris, the second sister, spent 12 years in a psychiatric hospital starting at the age of 22. Myra, the third sister, is the only one to marry and have children. She did not experience delusions or hallucinations until she was in her forties, so it is questioned if she has schizoaffective disorder (Schizoaffective disorder is a condition in which a person experiences a combination of schizophrenia symptoms such as hallucinations or delusions and of mood disorder symptoms, such as depression) or if she has schizophrenia like the rest of her sisters. Hester, the youngest sister, is the most severely ill. She was taken out of school in the eleventh grade and never worked outside the home. There are many factors that could explain why each sister has a different level of severity of schizophrenia. One of the factors includes the treatment of the children when they were younger. Since they were identical they shared the same genes, explaining why they all were diagnosed with schizophrenia, because the odds of being diagnosed with schizophrenia if a sibling already has it is close to 1in 2. The question raised in my mind is why the schizophrenia has different levels of severity in each daughter. With more research I learned that the quadruplets
Bibliography: * http://psychcentral.com/disorders/schizophrenia/schizo_causes2.htm * http://schizophreniabulletin.oxfordjournals.org/content/26/3/699.full.pdf * http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6151205 * http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/schizoaffective-disorder/DS00866 * http://www.health.am/psy/more/adoption-studies/