Schizophrenia:

Description:

Schizophrenia is a brain disease. The symptoms are disordered thinking, delusions, hallucinations and changes in emotions and behavior.

Auditory hallucinations (hearing voices) is the most common and prominent symptom. People with Schizophrenia have described these hallucinations as "a blaring radio inside your head."

Schizophrenia is a medical disease just as diabetes, multiple sclerosis and cancer are medical diseases.

Schizophrenia does not mean "split personality." People with Schizophrenia do not have multiple personalities like the Dr. Jekyll - Mr. Hyde stereotype.

Cause:

Scientists do not know exactly what causes Schizophrenia. They do know that both the anatomy and chemistry of the brain are abnormal.

In most cases, Schizophrenia runs in families but is not always passed down from parents to children.

Schizophrenia is not caused by domineering, overprotective or unfit mothers and fathers. In fact, one person can not cause Schizophrenia in another.

Schizophrenia "Chooses" its victims; no one "chooses" to have Schizophrenia.

Prevalence:

There are approximately 1.2 million people suffering from Schizophrenia at any give time. This number roughly equals the number of people living in Nebraska or Utah.

Schizophrenia affects approximately 1 out of every 100 people, usually first striking people between the ages of 17 and 25. The onset of Schizophrenia after age 30 is uncommon.

Most people living with Schizophrenia do not live in mental hospitals. The majority live with their families, in halfway houses or in their own apartments.

Many of America's homeless population -- roughly 25% to 30% -- also suffer from Schizophrenia.

Treatment:

There is not a cure for Schizophrenia, but most of the symptoms of the disease, like the symptoms of diabetes, can usually be controlled by medication, specifically the anti-psychotic (or neuroleptic) drugs. Emotional supp9ort and understanding environment are also important.

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Mental Health America of Augusta

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