Living with Schizophrenia

Approximately 1% of the world's population will develop schizophrenia at some point during their lifetime. This severe, disabling neurological disease is chronic and there is no cure. Although it affects both men and women equally, men are usually diagnosed earlier, in their late teens or early twenties. Schizophrenia symptoms are complex and the disorder can be difficult to diagnose, particularly in its early stages. People who have schizophrenia often have terrifying psychotic symptoms such as hearing voices in their heads, or believing that others are controlling their thoughts, reading their minds, or plotting against them. These symptoms often leave them afraid and withdrawn, so people living with schizophrenia can be incomprehensible or scary to other people because their speech patterns and behavior are disorganized and bizarre.

Diagnosing schizophrenia can be a complex and lengthy process, because the diagnosis is purely a clinical one - there is no blood test or physical exam that points to schizophrenia. Doctors must first rule out other disorders or illnesses, because people can sometimes suffer serious mental symptoms and sometimes even psychosis as a result of underlying medical conditions. The first step in diagnosis is taking a complete medical history and physical examination. Laboratory tests are useful in ruling out other possible causes of symptoms that indicate schizophrenia. Also, drugs that are commonly abused may give a person symptoms resembling those of schizophrenia, so urine or blood samples can be tested for those drugs. Another issue that complicates the diagnosis of schizophrenia is that it can be hard to tell one mental illness from another. Symptoms of schizophrenia can be very similar to symptoms of bipolar disorder, manic-depressive disorder, or major depression.

The initial signs indicating schizophrenia often appear as behavioral changes that may be confusing or shocking. A sudden onset of symptoms is referred to as being an "acute phase" of the disorder. Psychosis is a common symptom of schizophrenia where the patient is mentally impaired by hallucinations, delusions, and the inability to discern what is real and what is not real. Less obvious symptoms may precede, occur along with, or follow severe psychotic symptoms. Some people have a single episode of psychosis, but others have them many times throughout their lives, yet they lead fairly normal lives between episodes. However, a person who has chronic schizophrenia usually does not recover completely normal functioning, and they often require long-term medical treatment, usually requiring medication, in order to control their symptoms.

There are treatments for schizophrenia that can relieve many of the symptoms, but very few patients recover completely and most continue to suffer symptoms of some sort throughout their lives. Suicide is a danger for people diagnosed with schizophrenia; approximately 10% of all patients commit suicide, especially younger males. Medications can other treatments can control symptoms when used regularly and as prescribed, but there are persistent consequences of schizophrenia that can be very troubling - lost opportunities, medication side effects, social stigmas, and residual symptoms that never go away completely.

However, research is continuing to unravel the complex issues that cause the disease. Scientists are drawing upon approaches used to study molecular genetics and the study of populations to learn more about schizophrenia, and new methods of imaging the structure and function of the brain seem to hold promise for gaining new insights into the causes and potential treatments for schizophrenia. For patients with schizophrenia and their families, right now is a time of great hope and anticipation that someday soon there will be effective, long-lasting treatments that will give patients the chance for a normal life.