Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia

Picture living in a world where there is no distinction between reality and imagination. Not knowing if the person looking at you even ceases to exists. Imagine hearing voices in your head, making life so unbearable you feel lost and don't know where to turn. This might sound horrible to most of you, but this is reality for those who are burdened with the destructive mental disease schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia is among the most severe psychiatric disorders. In order to understand the severity of this disease it is important to explore what exactly schizophrenia is, the causes, and the different treatments.

Schizophrenia is a very serious and chronic brain disease. If the condition is left untreated a person's thoughts, actions and emotions will all become distorted. Schizophrenia is a disease that typically begins in early adulthood, men ages (15-25) and women (25-35). But symptoms can start as early as age 12. According to the National Institute of Mental Health 1.1% of the world's population is diagnosed with schizophrenia.

The Article Schizophrenia written for the British Medical Journal by Trevor Turner, states "schizophrenia is a mind boggling syndrome that can significantly hinder an individual's thoughts, perception, speech, and movement. In other words the individual loses touch with reality and begins to become delusional and experience hallucinations.

Now that we have a better concept of what schizophrenia is, let's try to understand the causes of the disease.

Although schizophrenia is not yet fully understood, scientists have found

that there are no single cause to the disease, but many different factors that are involved..

The risk of developing schizophrenia is higher for family members who are genetically pre-disposed to the mental illness.

Drugs have also been studied as a factor in schizophrenia. Although these substances do not cause schizophrenia certain drugs such as marijuana, LSD, or amphetamines may cause disturbances in the brain that can lead to the first episode of schizophrenia.

Since we have discussed what schizophrenia is and how it is caused, lets move on to the different treatments for the disorder.

Although there is no cure for schizophrenia, many people with this illness can lead a productive and fulfilling life with