Information, Symptoms and Treatment of Schizophrenia
Information, Symptoms and Treatment of Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a chronic and debilitating mental illness. The disease can cause you to withdraw from the people and activities in the world around you and retreat into a world of delusions and fantasies.
Schizophrenia is the most common and destructive kind of psychosis, which is an impairment of thinking in which your interpretation of reality can be severely abnormal. Psychosis is a symptom of a disordered brain.
Researchers haven't identified the cause or causes of schizophrenia, although they believe genetic factors play a role. Evidence suggests chemical or subtle structural abnormalities in your brain contribute to causing this illness.
Schizophrenia may exist alone or in combination with other psychiatric or medical conditions. Misconceptions about schizophrenia and its relation to other mental illnesses include:
Schizophrenia isn't the same as a "split" or multiple personality. Multiple personality disorder is a separate, rare condition.
Although some people with schizophrenia develop violent tendencies, most don't. Many withdraw into themselves rather than interact with others.
Not everyone who acts paranoid or distrustful is schizophrenic. Some people have paranoid personality disorder, a tendency to be suspicious or distrustful of others, without the other features of schizophrenia.
Not everyone who hears voices is schizophrenic. Some people with depression may hear voices. Hearing voices may also occur as a result of a serious medical illness or from the effects of medication.
Schizophrenia may affect up to 1 percent of the population worldwide, including more than 2.7 million Americans, occurring equally in men and women. The disorder is rare in children. There's no cure for the illness, but your doctor often can successfully manage schizophrenia — especially when an early diagnosis occurs. Fortunately, newer medications are making this poorly understood disorder more manageable than ever before.
WHAT IS IT?
Schizophrenia is a chronic, severe, and disabling brain disease. Approximately 1 percent of the population develops schizophrenia during their lifetime – more than 2 million Americans suffer from the illness in a given year. Although schizophrenia affects men and women with equal frequency, the disorder often appears earlier in men, usually in the late teens or early twenties, than in women, who are generally affected in the twenties to early thirties. People with schizophrenia often suffer terrifying symptoms such as hearing internal voices not heard by others, or believing that other people are reading their minds, controlling their thoughts, or plotting...