Schizoprhenia

People with the mental disorder schizophrenia tend to hear voices, and may believe that people are controlling their thoughts or plotting to harm them. Many people with schizophrenia find it hard to function and as a result, cannot keep a job, so their families have to take care of them or they are institutionalized. Hallucinations usually begin with men in their late teens and early 20s, while women are in their mid-20s to early 30s. The disease itself it is equally distributed between men and women.

There are three categories of symptoms: positive symptoms, negative symptoms and cognitive symptoms. Positive symptoms can include hallucinations, delusions and unusual thoughts or perceptions. Negative symptoms can include a decrease in the ability to initiate plans, speak, or find pleasure in life, which can be confused a depression or laziness. Cognitive symptoms are problems with memory, attention, and the inability to plan and organize. Cognitive symptoms are the hardest to detect as well the most disabling of the symptoms.

Schizophrenia is thought to come from a combination of environment and genetics. It has been proven by scientists for some time that schizophrenia is something that in inherited. Only one percent of the population is impacted by schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia was typically treated with antipsychotic medications in the 1950s. In the 1990s, atypical antipsychotic drugs were being used because the side effects were less severe than their predecessors. Basically, the medication is used to eliminate the symptoms of the disorder.