About Schizophrenia

What Is Schizophrenia?

Schizophrenia is a chronic, severe, and disabling brain disease. Around one percent of the population will develop schizophrenia during their lifetime. More than 2 million Americans suffer from the illness in a given year.

Gender and Age Patterns

• Schizophrenia affects men and women with equal frequency.
• Schizophrenia often appears earlier in men, usually in their late teens or early twenties.
• Schizophrenia generally surfaces for women in their twenties to early thirties.
• Children over the age of five can develop schizophrenia, but it is very rare before adolescence.

This Is A Time For Hope

• Research is gradually leading to new and safer medications and unraveling the complex causes of the disease.
• Scientists are using many approaches, from the study of molecular genetics to the study of populations, to learn about schizophrenia.
• Methods of imaging the brain’s structure and function hold the promise of new insights into the disorder.

Schizophrenia As An Illness

Schizophrenia is found all over the world. The severity of the symptoms and long-lasting, chronic pattern of schizophrenia often cause a high degree of disability. Medications and other treatments for schizophrenia, when used regularly and as prescribed, can help reduce and control the distressing symptoms of the illness. However, some people are not greatly helped by available treatments or may prematurely discontinue treatment because of unpleasant side effects or other reasons. Even when treatment is effective, persisting consequences of the illness – lost opportunities, stigma, residual symptoms, and medication side effects – may be very troubling.

Early Signs and Symptoms of Schizophrenia

• Confusing, or even shocking, changes in behavior.
• Sudden onset of severe psychotic symptoms (acute phase of schizophrenia).
• Psychosis (State of mental impairment marked by hallucinations and/or delusions).
• Social isolation or withdrawal.
• Unusual speech, thinking, or behavior.

Some people have only one such psychotic episode; others have many episodes during a lifetime, but lead relatively normal lives during the interim periods. However, the individual with “chronic” schizophrenia, or a continuous or recurring pattern of illness, often does not fully recover normal functioning and typically requires long-term treatment, generally including medication, to control the symptoms.

Diagnosing Schizophrenia

Mental health professionals will likely first rule out other possible causes of symptoms with:

• A complete medical history
• Physical Examination
• Laboratory Tests
• Drug Screening
• Ruling out other mental disorders (clinical depression, bipolar disorder, schizoaffective disorder)

A Schizophrenic's View of the World

• Distorted Perceptions of Reality

  Living in a world distorted by hallucinations and delusions, individuals with schizophrenia may feel frightened, anxious, and confused.

• Hallucinations and Illusions

  Hallucinations and illusions are disturbances of perception that are common in people suffering from schizophrenia. Voices may describe the patient’s activities, carry on a conversation, warn of impending dangers, or even issue orders to the individual.

• Delusions

  Delusions may take on different themes. For example, patients suffering from paranoid-type symptoms – roughly one-third of people with schizophrenia – often have delusions of persecution, or false and irrational beliefs that they are being cheated, harassed, poisoned, or conspired against. These patients may believe that they, or a member of the family or someone close to them, are the focus of this persecution. In addition, delusions of grandeur, in which a person may believe he or she is a famous or important figure, may occur in schizophrenia.

Common Schizophrenic Behaviors

• Substance Abuse
• Nicotine Dependence
• Disordered Thinking
• Apathetic Personality
• Changing "Normal VS Abnormal" Behaviors (Changes in behavior can be the result of medication adjustments)

Incorrect Notions About Schizophrenics:

• Schizophrenia is not Split personality
• Schizophrenics are not generally violent

What About Suicide?

Suicide is a serious danger in people who have schizophrenia. If an individual tries to commit suicide or threatens to do so, professional help should be sought immediately. People with schizophrenia have a higher rate of suicide than the general population. Approximately 10 percent of people with schizophrenia (especially younger adult males) commit suicide. Unfortunately, the prediction of suicide in people with schizophrenia can be especially difficult.

What is Schizophrenia?
What Causes Schizophrenia?
Treatments For Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia Helpers
The Outlook for Schizophrenia

Source: National Institutes of Mental Health articles and brochures on Schizophrenia