What is Schizophrenia?

Schizophrenia is a chronic, severe and disabling brain disease. While schizophrenia literally means, "split mind", it is not to be confused with "split" or multiple personality. Rather, it is best described as several prolonged and severe mental problems that can disrupt thought, speech, and behavior. Schizophrenia is known to be one of the most crippling and emotionally devastating illnesses today. But, because it has been misunderstood for so long, it has received little attention and its victims have been unfairly categorized.

Like many life-threatening diseases such as cancer, schizophrenia is a biologically based illness. It does not stem from personal weakness or family trauma. Also, like cancer, schizophrenia cannot be completely cured. However, unlike cancer schizophrenia can be easily treated through drug therapy. While not fully cured, schizophrenic patients who undergo this drug therapy can go on to lead productive and filling lives.

What are the characteristics of Schizophrenia?

Schizophrenia is most commonly characterized as a mental disease that causes its victims to suffer from symptoms such as:

-Hearing internal voices not heard by others around them,

-Believing that other people are controlling their minds, or

-Believing that others are trying to harm them.

These symptoms can leave a person suffering from schizophrenia feeling fearful as well as being withdrawn from the people around them. Other symptoms or characterizations of schizophrenic patients include:

-Disorganized speech and behavior that can be incomprehensible or even frightening to others.

-Lack of emotional expression.

-Social withdrawal.

-Deficits in cognitive functioning such as performance in verbal and spatial learning, recall, and recognition, and

-Delayed reaction times.

What is the prevalence of Schizophrenia in relation to the population?

More than two million Americans suffer from this illness within a given year. Even though Schizophrenia affects both men and women it is typically more apparent earlier in the life of men. Men who develop the disease usually show the first signs in their late teens or early twenties. Women, however, will not show signs of schizophrenia until their late twenties or early thirties. After the age of 30 schizophrenia is unlikely to develop and after the age of 40 any development of the disease is extremely rare.