Diversity in schizophrenia: toward a richer biopsychosocial understanding for social work practice

By incorporating information from the neurosciences, the study discussed in this article supports the view that schizophrenia is a diverse and biopsychosocial phenomenon. Forty-two people with schizophrenia were placed in one of two groups: people with a larger ventricle-to-brain ratio (VBR) or cortical atrophy (CA) or both and people without these conditions. The authors hypothesized that the former would have lower levels of psychosocial adaptation, higher levels of stress, and lower levels of self-esteem and would have a different course of illness than people without these two conditions. The study found few differences between the two groups, but there were significant differences between women and men and between African American and white participants. Implications for social work practice in the area of serious mental illness are discussed.