SchizophreniaSchizophrenia is a mental disorder that disables the brain and leaves a person feeling psychotic. A person diagnosed with this disorder may see or hear things that other people do not see. They may also think that if they talk with someone, that person is controlling their mind or planning to harm them in some way. This will cause the person with schizophrenia to withdraw from social interactions or become very agitated. Many different genetic and environmental factors contribute to the development of schizophrenia. Some environmental factors include exposure to certain viruses, stress in that person's life (parents of the person going through a divorce, school problems, etc.), prenatal malnutrition in pregnant women, and certain types of drug use among adolescents. These drugs, such as cannabis, methamphetamine, hashish and marijuana, could be a very likely cause of schizophrenia in adolescents. Alcohol has also been considered a very likely factor in the disorder. Overall, the biggest contributing factors to the development of this disorder are pregnancy-related complications. This may include diabetes while the woman is pregnant, complications during the birth of the child, unusual growth of the fetus, low birth weight, and birth before the baby is fully developed. A pregnant woman may react to an infection of the placenta, the fetus, or even the woman herself. This infection may trigger some toxic effect on developing neurons in the baby and regulate neurodevelopmental processes such as those seen in schizophrenia. A genetic factor for schizophrenia is believed to be a gene on chromosome twenty-two called COMT ( ...... middle of paper ...... we discovered very small changes in the characteristics of the person's brain cells. This could have happened before this person was even born. As the person grows the changes would adapt to the functioning of the brain, but you would not be able to see the actual physical change until then. Whether that person has reached puberty. During puberty, the brain will undergo major changes and in some cases this could lead to very psychotic symptoms, thus leading the person to develop schizophrenia. which schizophrenia can develop in a person There may be even more factors that contribute to the development of the disorder whatever they might discover, whether related to genes or environment. It is still today a disorder that disorients everyone in our society.