Schizophrenia is a chronic, severe, and disabling brain disorder that affects about 1 percent of people all over the world. Schizophrenia varies in its severity from individual to individual, and even within any one afflicted individual from one time period to another. People with schizophrenia may not make sense when they talk, may sit for hours without moving or talking much, or may seem perfectly fine until they talk about what they are really thinking. Without treatment, schizophrenia affects the ability to think clearly, manage emotions, and interact appropriately with other people. Being told that you or someone you love has schizophrenia can be frightening or even devastating. The best way to improve your quality of life with schizophrenia is to learn as much as you can about this condition and then adhere to the recommended treatment. Nevertheless, this is a time of hope for people with schizophrenia and their families. This brochure presents information on the symptoms of schizophrenia, when the symptoms appear, how the disease develops, current treatments, support for patients and their loved ones, and new directions in research.

The term schizophrenia refers to one of the most debilitating and baffling mental illnesses known. They have disorganized and abnormal thinking, behaviour and language and become emotionally unresponsive or withdrawn. Although the disorder is primarily thought to affect cognition , it can also contribute to chronic problems with behavior and emotion. Because many people with schizophrenia have difficulty holding a job or caring for themselves, the burden on their families and society is significant as well. The symptoms of schizophrenia generally can be controlled with treatment and, in more than 50 percent of individuals given access to continuous schizophrenia treatment and rehabilitation over many years, recovery is often possible. It is often disabling and can profoundly affect all areas of your life (for example, becoming unable to work or go to school) The most common type is paranoid schizophrenia, which causes fearful thoughts and hearing threatening voices. Schizophrenia does not involve multiple personalities and is not the same condition as dissociative identity disorder (also called multiple personality disorder or split personality).

Causes of Schizophrenia

The common Causes of Schizophrenia :

The cause of schizophrenia is not known,
It may be partly hereditary; in other words the genes that we inherit might be partly to blame
The other causes of the illness remain unknown, although it is thought that schizophrenia sufferers may have some parts of the brain that have not developed in exactly the normal way
An attack can be brought on by stress, although this is not the cause of schizophrenia
Possibly there is an imbalance in the chemicals that the brain uses to send messages from one cell to another

Symptoms of Schizophrenia

Some Symptoms of Schizophrenia :

Inability to experience pleasure.
Lack of emotion.
Loss of motivation to succeed or accomplish goals.
Delusions
Hallucinations
Difficulty with personal hygiene
Clumsy, uncoordinated movements

Treatment of Schizophrenia

Individual and family psychotherapy (including supportive, cognitive, and behavioral therapy)
Specialized educational and/or structured activity programs (i.e., social skills training, vocational training, speech and language therapy)
Self-help and support groups
Medications that act against the symptoms of psychotic illness, but do not cure the illness. This specialized class of medications can reduce symptoms or reduce the severity of symptoms, and is used primarily to treat the pervasive, intrusive, and disturbing thoughts of a person with schizophrenia. They are designed to help minimize the severity of delusions and hallucinations the adolescent is experiencing.

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