Important Facts and Symptoms

• Schizophrenia is a mental disorder which is feared by many because of its not very popular causes and because of its peculiar symptoms. This serious mental disorder doesn’t have a concrete history record unlike depression or mania. Schizophrenia was discovered and became somehow known in the early nineteenth century. Therefore, it can be said that Schizophrenia is a recent illness, but that does not have to mean that it did not exist in the earlier times. Schizophrenia is a chronic mental disorder which affects about 1 percent of the population worldwide. This serious mental illness interferes with a person’s ability to think clearly. Making decisions and handling emotions becomes very difficult too. Schizophrenia patients suffer from delusions. Also, these people hear voices that many times tell them what to do. Schizophrenics feel other people are plotting to hurt them, which may affect the way they interact with others, and that is why many times the Schizophrenic withdraws from others. Symptoms of Schizophrenia can be found in other mental disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease and bipolar disorder. There are three types of symptoms: Positive, Negative and Cognitive symptoms. Positive symptoms include the person’s loss of touch with reality which might lead to hallucinations and/or delusions and also beliefs that other people monitor their lives and are trying to harm them. Negative symptoms involve a lack of interest in life and a lack of emotional desire. Cognitive symptoms compromise the thinking process such as organizing things and doing different tasks. The Schizophrenic person’s mood might be affected too which can develop bipolar behaviors. Depression can also occur. It is very important to talk about prevalence and incidence when it comes to a serious illness that threatens population. The science of Epidemiology does an outstanding work trying to define different rates for a specific illness. However trying to identify these rates isn’t easy and sometimes almost impossible due to several different factors. In Schizophrenia, Incidence is a little complicated to determine. However, it is known that prevalence is lower in developing countries than in developed countries. Most of the people who have Schizophrenia, (1 percent worldwide) live in a developed country. Something also highly important is mortality. Mortality rates in schizophrenia have risen. It is important to mention that Mortality rates in Suicide have increased as well, and many of those suicides have been committed by Schizophrenic patients. It has also been suggested than many schizophrenics have high risks of dying by homicide. “A research group in the United Kingdom has reported that men with Schizophrenia have an increased risk of dying by homicide, especially when they are involved in alcohol and drug use”.

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