Maine massacre: A THIRD of mass shooters have schizophrenia and 3MILLION Americans are living with reality-warping condition

A mass shooter in Maine who slaughtered dozens of people and remains at large is believed to be a schizophrenic who heard voices urging him to carry out his massacre.

Robert Card, an Army reservist and firearms instructor, was admitted to a mental health facility in June for an unspecified condition that experts, like his cousin, said showed hallmark signs of schizophrenia.

An estimated 2.8 million American adults suffer from reality distortion disorder, or 1.1 percent of the population—yet an estimated four in 10 remain without treatment.

And while this rate is around 1 in 100 among the general population, more than a third of U.S. mass shooters suffered from the condition, according to research and gun violence prevention organization. The violence project.

Psychologist Dr. Elinor Greenberg said that while Card is qualified for a psychotic disorder, his age is older than the typical onset.

She told DailyMail.com: ‘We know he was admitted to hospital at the age of 40, and that schizophrenia would occur in men between the ages of 16 and 20.

‘What happened between then and now? I’m trying to explain how this man went from 20 to 40 before last summer without being hospitalized… Something has seriously disrupted his functioning. So that’s the big question: what’s going on, and why the violence?’

Schizophrenia is a so-called polygenic disorder, which means that there is the interaction of several genes.

Research on identical twins has shown that genetics is not the only factor in the diagnosis of schizophrenia. If that were the case, both identical twins would have schizophrenia.

Dr. Greenberg said, “So theoretically, they’re in the same womb, they have the same genetics. If it were just genetic, there would be a 100 percent chance (of the other twin getting it too). But that’s not what people found, the average chance is about 46 percent.’

Until recently, scientists didn’t know exactly which genes those were, but now a fuller picture is coming into view, as scientists have recently identified a handful of genes associated with the balance of neurotransmitters such as dopamine and serotonin in the brain.

Family members of diagnosed schizophrenics may carry the genetic factors that predispose them, but they will never develop the disorder themselves.

Traumatic events can trigger the onset of schizophrenia, which typically occurs in men in the late teens to early 20s and in women in the late 20s to early 30s. The brain changes a lot during puberty, and those changes can trigger the disease.

Scientists also believe that this, in addition to external factors such as trauma, combines with genetic factors a chemical imbalance in the brain is to blame.

They are particularly interested in serotonin, which helps regulate mood, dopamine, which stimulates desire and motivation, and glutamate, which is important for memory, cognition and mood regulation.

That has also proven to be the case 30 percent of schizophrenia cases among men ages 21 to 30 are associated with heavy and problematic use of marijuana, which is legal in Maine for medicinal and recreational use.

Diagnosing schizophrenia is not always easy. Not enough is known about the underlying causes of the condition. Much of what is known about it comes from subjective self-reporting and there is no objective diagnostic test.

Some changes that lead to schizophrenia may resemble normal life events or symptoms of depression, such as dropping certain friends, suddenly doing poorly at school and not maintaining personal hygiene, making it all the more difficult to cope with this. to be noticed at an early stage.

When assessing a person for schizophrenia, a health care provider should begin by ruling out other verifiable diagnoses, such as brain tumors or another psychiatric diagnosis such as bipolar disorder.

Card’s cousin Michael Mercier told a CBS news station that Card is “schizophrenic” and “goes around in his head a lot.”

At the same time, Card’s sister-in-law Kate O’Neill claims her relative is “not someone who has had mental health issues all their life or anything like that,” adding that this was “an acute episode.”

Just over a third of mass shooters suffer from the condition, according to a gun violence research and prevention organization The violence project.

Dr. Greenberg said that while the suspect may meet the requirements for a psychotic disorder, his age is older than the typical onset: “We know he was hospitalized at age 40, and the onset of schizophrenia in men would be between are 16 and 20 years old.

The vast majority of people with schizophrenia are nonviolent, but an estimated 10 percent will commit violence at some point in their lives.

At the same time, people with schizophrenia are three to four times more likely to act violently than the rest of the population.

Wednesday’s string of shootings at a bar, a bowling alley and a Walmart distribution center joined the grim role of 192 mass shootingsdefined as events that kill four or more people and have occurred in the US since the 1960s.

According to The Violence Project, about a quarter of the criminals who carried out these mass shootings had a history of thought disorders, a defining symptom of schizophrenia.

A thought disorder causes a person to lose the ability to think logically and coherently and to be unable to maintain a clear pattern of thought when communicating with others. Someone with a thought disorder jumps from one topic to another quickly, without clear reasoning, and goes off on tangents.

Mental health issues are often cited as a leading cause of gun violence. While it is true that an estimated 3 percent of mentally ill people committed violent acts, it is believed that people with schizophrenia four to six times more likely than the level of the general population without the disorder to commit violence.

Psychologists have been studying possible causes of schizophrenia since its first description in the late 19th century.

Dr. Greenberg, author of the authoritative book Borderline, Narcissistic, and Schizoid Adaptations: The Pursuit of Love, Admisration, and Safety, told DailyMail.com that medication helps many people with schizophrenia manage their symptoms and live independently.

But at the same time, many people, especially the poor and homeless schizophrenic population, who would benefit from treatment cannot receive it.

She said: “We need more resources. But most importantly, we need these kinds of intermediaries, where you have a social worker who makes sure they come to their appointments, and makes sure they’re home in the evenings.

“And if they have a psychotic episode, there’s a psychiatrist they can be sent to, so things will go more smoothly, and it will go on for months without people noticing, until it’s so severe that the person needs to be hospitalized.” be included. ‘

The best tools available to treat schizophrenia are a certain class of psychiatric medications called antipsychotics.

They are largely effective, but come with side effects that can be so disturbing – such as involuntary jerking movements – that people stop taking them altogether.

Dr. Greenberg said, “People don’t like taking them for two reasons. First, they don’t like the side effects. And secondly, when they feel better, they think I don’t need this anymore.’

It is believed to be a product of combined genetic and environmental influences. But researchers have not identified a specific gene as the cause, just as they can identify the causes of diseases such as cystic fibrosis and sickle cell anemia.