Article Medically Reviewed By:
Joseph Pierre, MD
Assistant Clinical Professor Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA VA West Los Angeles Healthcare Center Los Angeles, CA
Overview
What Is It?
Schizophrenia is a brain disorder, with many abnormalities of the brain structure, function and chemistry.
Schizophrenia is a chronic brain disorder that is usually progressively debilitating without medical treatment. An estimated 2.5 million Americans—or 1 percent of the population—currently suffer from schizophrenia. While there is no known cure for this severe mental illness, new medications can help alleviate many of the disease's severe symptoms with fewer side effects than older medications.
The number of reported cases is split evenly between men and women, although schizophrenia tends to appear earlier for men—usually in the late teens or early 20s—compared to women, who generally begin to display symptoms in their 20s or early 30s. Onset of schizophrenia is rare before puberty and very uncommon after age 45.
Early Symptoms
Schizophrenia presents differently in different people. Symptoms tend to appear gradually and can easily go unnoticed by friends and family in the beginning. However, some cases symptoms of schizophrenia occur suddenly and can be quite dramatic. As the illness advances, the symptoms can become more bizarre and severe.
People with schizophrenia tend to have psychotic symptoms, such as hearing voices when no one is speaking or insisting that other people are listening to their thoughts or attempting to control them. Many people with schizophrenia have active psychotic episodes, a state where hallucinations and/or delusions occur and they lose touch with reality. Most people with schizophrenia experience at least one relapse after their first such episode.
Other early signs of the disease include increasing social withdrawal and loss of interest in normal pursuits, unusual behavior or a decrease in overall functioning, often before the delusions and hallucinations begin. These are often the first warning signs that alert friends and family to a problem.
As the illness progresses, a person's speech and behavior tend to become progressively disorganized and confused, and their work performance usually deteriorates. Eventually, the symptoms become more extreme, appearing as if the person has undergone a dramatic personality change. If these and other symptoms persist for six months or longer and no external cause such as the effects of illicit drug use or a medical illness is detected, the person is usually diagnosed with schizophrenia.
People who have schizophrenia are more likely to commit suicide than people in the general population, with an estimated 5 to 10 percent of all people diagnosed with schizophrenia ending their life this way. Young adult males are most likely to commit suicide.
Role of Genetics
Genetics appears to play a role in schizophrenia. However, genetics alone does not explain...
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