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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 to harm them. These symptoms may leave them fearful and withdrawn. Their speech and behavior can be so disorganized that they may be incomprehensible or frightening to others. Available treatments can relieve many symptoms, but most people with schizophrenia continue to suffer some symptoms throughout their lives; it has been estimated that no more than one in five individuals recovers completely.
This is a time of hope for people with schizophrenia and their families. 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 brains 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. The first signs of schizophrenia often appear as confusing, or even shocking, changes in behavior.
Coping with the symptoms of schizophrenia can be especially difficult for family members who remember how involved or vivacious a person was before they became ill. The sudden onset of severe psychotic symptoms is referred to as an acute phase of schizophrenia. Psychosis, a common condition in schizophrenia, is a state of mental impairment marked by hallucinations, which are disturbances of sensory perception, and / or delusions, which are false yet strongly held personal beliefs that result from an inability to separate real from unreal experiences. Less obvious symptoms, such as social isolation or withdrawal, or unusual speech, thinking, or behavior, may precede, be seen along with, or follow the psychotic symptoms.
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. Making A Diagnosis It is important to rule out other illnesses, as sometimes people suffer severe mental symptoms or even psychosis due to undetected underlying medical conditions. For this reason, a medical history should be taken and a physical examination and laboratory tests should be done to rule out other possible causes of the symptoms before concluding that a person has schizophrenia.
In addition, since commonly abused drugs may cause symptoms resembling schizophrenia, blood or urine samples from the person can be tested at hospitals or physicians offices for the presence of these drugs. At times, it is difficult to tell one mental disorder from another. For instance, some people with symptoms of schizophrenia exhibit prolonged extremes of elated or depressed mood, and it is important to determine whether such a patient has schizophrenia or actually has a manic-depressive (or bipolar) disorder or major depressive disorder. Persons whose symptoms cannot be clearly categorized are sometimes diagnosed as having a schizo affective disorder.
Can Children Have Schizophrenia? Children over the age of five can develop schizophrenia, but it is very rare before adolescence. Although some people who later develop schizophrenia may have seemed different from other children at an early age, the psychotic symptoms of schizophrenia hallucinations and delusions are extremely uncommon before adolescence. The World of People With Schizophrenia Distorted Perceptions of Reality People with schizophrenia may have perceptions of reality that are strikingly different from the reality seen and shared by others around them.
Living in a world distorted by hallucinations and delusions, individuals with schizophrenia may feel frightened, anxious, and confused. In part because of the unusual realities they experience, people with schizophrenia may behave very differently at various times. Sometimes they may seem distant, detached, or preoccupied and may even sit as rigidly as a stone, not moving for hours or uttering a sound. Other times they may move about constantly always occupied, appearing wide-awake, vigilant, and alert. Hallucinations and Illusions Hallucinations and illusions are disturbances of perception that are common in people suffering from schizophrenia. Hallucinations are perceptions that occur without connection to an appropriate source.
Although hallucinations can occur in any sensory form auditory (sound), visual (sight), tactile (touch), gustatory (taste), and olfactory (smell) hearing voices that other people do not hear is the most common type of hallucination in schizophrenia. Voices may describe the patients activities, carry on a conversation, warn of impending dangers, or even issue orders to the individual. Illusions, on the other hand, occur when a sensory stimulus is present but is incorrectly interpreted by the individual. Delusions Delusions are false personal beliefs that are not subject to reason or contradictory evidence and are not explained by a persons usual cultural concepts.
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.
Sometimes the delusions experienced by people with schizophrenia are quite bizarre; for instance, believing that a neighbor is controlling their behavior with magnetic waves; that people on television are directing special messages to them; or that their thoughts are being broadcast aloud to others. Substance Abuse Substance abuse is a common concern of the family and friends of people with schizophrenia. Since some people who abuse drugs may show symptoms similar to those of schizophrenia, people with schizophrenia may be mistaken for people "high on drugs. While most researchers do not believe that substance abuse causes schizophrenia, people who have schizophrenia often abuse alcohol and / or drugs, and may have particularly bad reactions to certain drugs.
Substance abuse can reduce the effectiveness of treatment for schizophrenia. Stimulants (such as amphetamines or cocaine) may cause major problems for patients with schizophrenia, as may PCP or marijuana. In fact, some people experience a worsening of their schizophrenic symptoms when they are taking such drugs. Substance abuse also reduces the likelihood that patients will follow the treatment plans recommended by their doctors.
Schizophrenia and Nicotine The most common form of substance use disorder in people with schizophrenia is nicotine dependence due to smoking. While the prevalence of smoking in the U. S. population is about 25 to 30 percent, the prevalent...
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