SCHIZOPHRENIA

Is a mental disorder characterized by a breakdown of thought processes and by poor emotional responsiveness. Common symptoms include auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking, and it is accompanied by significant social or occupational dysfunction. The onset of symptoms typically occurs in young adulthood. Genetics, early environment, neurobiology, and psychological and social processes appear to be important contributory factors; some recreational and prescription drugs appear to cause or worsen symptoms. Current research is focused on the role of neurobiology, although no single isolated organic cause has been found. The many possible combinations of symptoms have triggered debate about whether the diagnosis represents a single disorder or a number of discrete syndromes. The disorder is thought mainly to affect cognition, but it also usually contributes to chronic problems with behavior and emotion. People with schizophrenia are likely to have additional conditions, including major depression and anxiety disorders; the lifetime occurrence of substance abuse is almost 50%.[5]Social problems, such as long-term unemployment, poverty, and homelessness are common. The average life expectancy of people with the disorder is 12 to 15 years less than those without, the result of increased physical health problems and a higher suicide rate (about 5%).

SYMPTOMS:
A person diagnosed with schizophrenia may experience hallucinations (most reported are hearing voices), delusions (often bizarre or persecutory in nature), and disorganized thinking and speech. The latter may range from loss of train of thought, to sentences only loosely connected in meaning, to incoherence known as word salad in severe cases. Social withdrawal, sloppiness of dress and hygiene, and loss of motivation and judgment are all common in schizophrenia. There is often an observable pattern of emotional difficulty, for example lack of responsiveness. Impairment in social cognition is associated with schizophrenia, as are symptoms of paranoia; social isolation commonly occurs. Difficulties in working and long-term memory, attention, executive functioning, and speed of processing also commonly occur. In one uncommon subtype, the person may be largely mute, remain motionless in bizarre postures, or exhibit purposeless agitation, all signs of catatonia.

TYPES OF SCHIZOPHRENIA
Paranoid-type schizophrenia is characterized by delusions and auditory hallucinations (hearing voices that don't exist) but relatively normal intellectual functioning and expression of affect. The delusions can often be about being persecuted unfairly or being some other person who is famous. People with paranoid-type schizophrenia can exhibit anger, aloofness, anxiety, and argumentativeness. Disorganized-type schizophrenia is characterized by speech and behavior that are disorganized or difficult to understand, and flattening or inappropriate emotions. People with disorganized-type schizophrenia may laugh at the changing color of a traffic light or at something not closely related to what they are saying or doing. Their disorganized behavior may disrupt normal activities, such as showering, dressing, and preparing meals. Catatonic-type schizophrenia is characterized by disturbances of movement. People with catatonic-type schizophrenia may keep themselves completely immobile or move all over the place. They may not say anything for hours, or they may repeat anything you say or do senselessly. Either way, the behavior is putting these people at high risk because it impairs their ability to take care of themselves. Undifferentiated-type schizophrenia is characterized by some symptoms seen in all of the above types but not enough of any one of them to define it as another particular type of schizophrenia.

DIAGNOSIS
Schizophrenia is diagnosed based on criteria in either the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, version DSM-IV-TR, or the World Health Organization's International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, the ICD-10. These criteria use the self-reported experiences of the person and reported abnormalities in behavior, followed by a clinical assessment by a mental health professional. Symptoms associated with schizophrenia occur along a continuum in the population and must reach a certain severity before a diagnosis is made.

HOW COMMON IS SCHIZOPHRENIA?

Schizophrenia is more common than most people think. About 1 percent of people in the U.S. will develop schizophrenia during their lives. It is also important to know that schizophrenia has many different symptoms that can manifest itself in many different ways.

Schizophrenia is not the same as the "split personality". The split personality is a different type of mental illness. The split personality is much less common than schizophrenia.

WHO GETS SCHIZOPHRENIA?

Anyone can get schizophrenia. In men, psychotic symptoms usually begin in adolescence or in the 20s. In women, psychotic symptoms usually begin in 20s to 30s. It is considered that a person has schizophrenia unless symptoms last at least six months.

WHAT CAUSES SCHIZOPHRENIA?

There is no single cause of schizophrenia. Although stress can cause or worsen symptoms, stress does not cause schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a mental disorder. The safest thing is to develop a mix of factors which may include: A defect in certain chemicals in the brain that control thought and understanding The genetic makeup of the person in question (the propensity of developing schizophrenia may be passed from parents to children) A defect in how the brain forms the personality of the person