we can be so much more

Lauren Daigle - Trust In You

we can be so much more

Schizophrenia facts

• Schizophrenia is a chronic, severe, debilitating mental illness that affects about 1% of the population, more than 2 million people in the United States alone.
• With the sudden onset of severe psychotic symptoms, the individual is said to be experiencing acute psychosis. Psychotic means out of touch with reality or unable to separate real from unreal experiences.
• There is no known single cause of schizophrenia. As discussed later, it appears that genetic and other biological factors produce a vulnerability to schizophrenia, with environmental factors contributing to different degrees in different individuals.
• There are a number of various schizophrenia treatments. Given the complexity of schizophrenia, the major questions about this disorder (its cause or causes, prevention, and treatment) are unlikely to be resolved in the near future. The public should beware of those offering "the cure" for (or "the cause" of) schizophrenia.
• Schizophrenia is one of the psychotic mental disorders and affects an individual's thoughts, behaviors, and social functioning.
• Symptoms of schizophrenia may include delusions, hallucinations, catatonia, negative symptoms, and disorganized speech or behavior.
• While schizophrenia used to be divided into different types of the disorder, it is now considered to have various symptoms of one inclusive disorder.
• Children as young as 6 years of age can be found to have all the schizophrenia symptoms as their adult counterparts and to continue to have those symptoms into adulthood.
• Although the term schizophrenia has only been in used since 1911, its symptoms have been described throughout written history.
• Schizophrenia is considered to be the result of a complex group of genetic, psychological, and environmental factors.
• Health-care professionals diagnose schizophrenia by gathering comprehensive medical, family, mental-health, and social/cultural information.
• The practitioner will also either perform a physical examination or request that the individual's primary-care doctor perform one. The medical examination will usually include lab tests.
• In addition to providing treatment that is appropriate to the diagnosis, professionals attempt to determine the presence of mental illnesses that may co-occur.
• People with schizophrenia are at increased risk of having a number of other mental-health conditions, committing suicide, and otherwise dying earlier than people without this disorder.
• Medications that have been found to be most effective in treating the positive symptoms of schizophrenia are first- and second-generation antipsychotics.
• Psychosocial interventions for schizophrenia include education of family members, assertive community treatment, substance-abuse treatment, social-skills training, supported employment, cognitive behavioral therapy, and weight management.
• Cognitive remediation, peer-to-peer treatment, and weight-management interventions remain the focus topics for research.

Being Classic is timeless

Eartha Kitt

Ingeborg Rapoport was denied her PhD at the University of Hamburg in 1938 for "racial reasons" due to her Jewish heritage. Last week, the 102-year-old Rapoport at long last had the opportunity to defend her doctoral thesis on diphtheria before an academic committee -- 77 years after she completed it. After she aced her oral exam, her PhD was approved and the degree will be awarded to her in a ceremony next month in Hamburg. When this Nazi injustice from decades ago is finally righted, Rapoport will become the oldest person in the world to ever receive a doctoral degree.

Rapoport was 25 years old when she submitted her thesis on diphtheria, an infectious disease that was a leading cause of death among children at the time. Her professor praised her work but, as Rapoport told The Wall Street Journal, "I was told I wasn’t permitted to take the oral examination." Although she was raised as a Protestant, Rapoport's mother was Jewish which, according to the Nazis, made her “a first-degree crossbreed” and ineligible for academic advancement. “My medical existence was turned to rubble,” she recalled. “It was a shame for science and a shame for Germany."

That year, she emigrated penniless to the US where she did several internships at hospitals and eventually received her M.D. from the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania. After working for several years in the US and starting a family, she returned to Europe and founded the first neonatology clinic in Germany at Berlin’s Charité Hospital. Reflecting on her journey, she said, "I have never felt bitterness. I’ve been shockingly lucky in all this. For me it all came out well: I had my best teachers in the U.S., I found my husband, I had my children.” But in recent months, she began to wonder about the possibility of receiving her long-denied degree.

A Hamburg colleague of her son learned about her story and presented her case to the current dean of the medical school, Dr. Uwe Koch-Gromus. Koch-Gromus was determined that Rapoport should complete her degree -- and that she should earn it, not be granted an honorary Ph.D., even though the university’s legal department said that was the simplest solution. Koch-Gromus arranged for Rapoport to do an oral examination on diphtheria, the subject of her original paper, and she began studying up on the past 70 years of diphtheria research. After her exam, Koch-Gromus said, “Frau Rapoport has gathered notable knowledge about what’s happened since then. Particularly given her age, she was brilliant.”

Rapoport will receive her doctorate at a ceremony in Hamburg on June 9, and in doing so will set a new world record for the oldest person to receive a PhD. Rapoport is thrilled to be receiving her degree at long last and pleased that the university is striving to amend this injustice. Koch-Gramus, she said, “has made a great effort to show that things are now different in Germany.” Most importantly to Rapoport, however, is the chance to reflect on the circumstances that preventing her from receiving her degrees decades ago: "I am happy and proud, but this is not about me. This is in commemoration of those who did not make it this far."

To read more about Rapoport’s life in The Wall Street Journal, visithttp://on.wsj.com/1QLE3Oz

For an excellent book about courageous women who stood up to the injustices of the Nazi regime, we highly recommend "Women Heroes of World War II: 26 Stories of Espionage, Sabotage, Resistance, and Rescue" for ages 13 and up at http://www.amightygirl.com/women-heroes-of-world-war-ii

For books about girls and women who lived during this period, including many who were impacted by Hilter's "races laws", visit out "WWII / Holocaust" book section at http://www.amightygirl.com/…/history-biograp…/history-world…

For stories starring girls and women that encourage acceptance of differences of all types, visit our "Tolerance & Acceptance" section athttp://www.amightygirl.com/boo…/personal-development/values…

For Mighty Girl stories for children and teens that emphasize the value of persistence and determination, visit our "Perseverance" section athttp://www.amightygirl.com/boo…/personal-development/values…

And, for two excellent picture books for young children starring Mighty Girls who learn about the power of perseverance, check out "The Most Magnificent Thing" (http://www.amightygirl.com/the-most-magnificent-thing) and "Rosie Revere, Engineer" (http://www.amightygirl.com/rosie-revere-engineer)