Description:
-Schizophrenia is a brain disease. The symptoms are impaired 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 parents. Someone cannot cause schizophrenia in another person.
-Schizophrenia "chooses" its victims; no one "chooses" to have Schizophrenia
Prevalence:
- There are approximately 1.2 million people suffering from Schizophrenia at any given time. This number roughly equals the number of people living in New Hampshire.
-Schizophrenia affects approximately 1 out of every 100 people, usually first striking people between the ages of 17 and 25. Of these, about one third recover, one third can improve with proper medical treatment, and one third may remain the same or decline. The onset of Schizophrenia after the age of 30 is uncommon.
-Most people 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%-also suffer from Schizophrenia.
Treatment:
-There is no cure for Schizophrenia but most of the symptoms of the disease, like the symptoms of diabetes, can usually be controlled by medication. Emotional support and ad understanding environment are also important.
-Fewer medical research dollars are spent on Schizophrenia than on most other diseases. For every patient with multiple sclerosis, is spent on research. For every patient with cancer, it is . For every patient with schizophrenia, just is spent on research.
Cost to Society:
-The annual cost of Schizophrenia in the US is estimated at - BILLION in direct medical costs, subsidized income and lost productivity.
