Schizophrenia

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• Schizophrenia Overview
• Schizophrenia Causes
• Schizophrenia Symptoms
• When to Seek Medical Care
• Exams and Tests
• Schizophrenia Treatment
• Self-Care at Home
• Medical Treatment
• Medications
• Other Therapy
• Next Steps
• Follow-up
• Prevention
• Outlook
• Support Groups and Counseling
• For More Information
• Web Links
• Synonyms and Keywords
• Authors and Editors
• Read more on Schizophrenia from Healthwise
• Viewer Comments: Schizophrenia - Describe Your Experience

Schizophrenia Overview

Schizophrenia is a chronic, severe, and disabling mental illness. It affects men and women with equal frequency. Peoplesuffering fromschizophrenia may have the following symptoms:

• Delusions, false personal beliefs held with conviction in spite of reason or evidence to the contrary, not explained bythat person's cultural context
  
  
• Hallucinations,perceptions (can besound, sight, touch, smell, or taste) that occur in the absence of an actual external stimulus(Auditory hallucinations, those of voice or other sounds,are the most common type of hallucinationsin schizophrenia.)
  
  
• Disorganized thoughts and behaviors
  
  
• Disorganized speech
  
  
• Catatonic behavior, in which the affected person's body may be rigid and the person may be unresponsive

The term schizophrenia is Greek in origin, and in the Greek meant"split mind." This is not an accurate medical term. In Western culture, some peoplehave cometo believe that schizophrenia refers to a split-personality disorder. These aretwo very different disorders, and people with schizophrenia do not have separate personalities.

Schizophrenia and other mental health disorders have fairly strict criteria for diagnosis. Time of onsetas well aslength and characteristics of symptoms are all factors. The active symptoms of schizophrenia must be present at least 6 months, or only 1 month if treated.

• Who is affected?

• Estimates of how many people are diagnosed with this disorder vary.The illness affects about 1% of the population. More than 2 million Americans suffer from schizophrenia at any given time, and 100,000-200,000 peopleare newly diagnosedevery year. Fifty percent ofpeople in hospital psychiatric care have schizophrenia.

• Schizophrenia is usually diagnosed in peopleaged 17-35 years. The illness appears earlier in men (in the late teens or early twenties) than in women (who are affected in the twenties to early thirties). Many of them are disabled. They may not be able to hold downjobs or even performtasks as simple as conversations. Some may be so incapacitated that they are unable to doactivities most people take for granted, such as showering or preparinga meal. Many are homeless. Somerecover enough to live a life relatively free fromassistance.