People who suffers from schizophrenia may hear voices in their heads, suffer from hallucinations, or develop paranoid fears. They may have delusions of grandeur, engage in bizarre social behavior, and use illogical or odd speech.

What these symptoms have in common is the fundamental marker of schizophrenia— an inability to distinguish what is real from what is not. The crippling disorder is one of the most prevalent mental illnesses in the United States, with an estimated 3 million cases.

For many schizophrenics, the disease makes it difficult to lead a normal life, and schizophrenia is the leading cause of institutionalization in mental hospitals. However, the disease can be successfully controlled in many people with a combination of psychotherapy and antipsychotic drugs.

Schizophrenia is typically diagnosed in men in their late teens and women in their twenties and thirties. It is though to be caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain that results from a combination of genetic factors and environmental stresses such as illness or malnutrition.

Schizophrenics are grouped into several subcategories according to the type and severity of their symptoms. Paranoid schizophrenics develop delusions that they are being persecuted by grand conspiracies. Catatonic schizophrenics lose their ability to move and sometimes to talk, assuming a zombielike mein. Hebephrenic schizophrenics report hallucinations, delusions, and unusual or inappropriate behavior.

Although this condition has a reputation for being dangerous, most people with schizophrenia are not prone to violence. They are, however, more likely to attempt suicide and abuse alcohol and drugs than the normal population. If people with this illness do become violent, their anger is most often directed at family members in their own home. The “split personality” popular in movies is based on a rare form of schizophrenia.

ADDITIONAL FACTS

  1. People with schizophrenia are addicted to nicotine at three times the rate of the general population, and research shows that quitting smoking can be especially difficult for someone with this disorder.
  2. A 2009 study found that schizophrenia is linked to a higher risk of dying from cancer, in part because schizophrenics are less likely to follow treatment programs.
  3. Famous schizophrenics include author Jack Kerouac (1922–1969), Green Bay Packers defensive end Lionel Aldridge (1941–1998), and Nobel Prize-winning mathematician John F. Nash Jr. (1928–), the subject of the 2001 biopic A Beautiful Mind.