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Schizophrenia

INTRODUCTION

Schizophrenia is a serious mental illness. Patients experience progressive personality changes and a breakdown in their relationships with the outside world. They have disorganized and abnormal thinking, behaviour and language and become emotionally unresponsive or withdrawn.
"The first signs, usually only noticed in looking back on events, are likely to include an unexpected withdrawal of the degree or type of contact that the person used to have with family or school. The person seems less capable of of dealing with "minor" stresses in the accustomed way. This may develop to an extreme over months or years (sometimes termed negative symptoms). Alternatively, the person may develop elaborate constructions to interpret the world, as they see it, which may reflect matters that are only in their mind (sometimes termed productive or positive symptoms, that, in the extreme, can take the form of delusions or auditory hallucinations)." (Schizophrenia: A Background Sketch http://www.biopsychology.uni-essen.de/Background%20Sketch(1).htm)

People who suffer from schizophrenia may have a very broad range of symptoms which can cause great distress to themselves and their families. These symptoms can take many forms including:
• 'Positive symptoms' (abnormal experiences), such as hallucinations (seeing, hearing, feeling something that isn't actually there), delusions (false and usually strange beliefs) and paranoia (unrealistic fear)
• 'Negative symptoms' (absence of normal behaviour), such as emotional withdrawal, and lack of motivation and enjoyment
• Cognitive dysfunction (problems with concentration, learning abilities and memory)

The lifetime risk of someone suffering from schizophrenia is about 1%, and most people first experience symptoms between the ages of 15 and 35 years.

"Schizophrenia is a chronic, severe, and disabling brain disease. Approximately 1 percent of all populations develop schizophrenia during their lifetime. In the vast...