Questions & Answers
What is schizophrenia?
Schizophrenia is a disease of the brain that seriously affects an individual's thinking, emotions and general behaviour. Individuals with schizophrenia suffer from psychotic symptoms. These include hallucinations (observing things differently), delusions (bizarre beliefs that are untrue), thought disorders or fear. A significant characteristic of psychotic symptoms is that people with them usually have no idea they're suffering from a mental illness.
What are the symptoms of hallucinations?
An hallucination is when a person sees, hears, tastes or feels things that do not exist in reality.
The most commonly experienced hallucinations in schizophrenia are hearing voices which no-one else can hear or seeing things that aren't there.
What are the symptoms of delusions?
Delusions are bizarre beliefs that are untrue. Sufferers of schizophrenia might think that someone is deliberately tampering with their food, for example.
How many people suffer from schizophrenia?
About 1% of the world's population suffers from schizophrenia.
How does a person get schizophrenia?
It is thought that those who suffer from schizophrenia have abnormalities in the structure and connections of the brain. The reasons some people develop schizophrenia are probably a combination of hereditary factors and life events (such as a severe emotional blow, divorce, the death of a family member or dismissal).
Can children get schizophrenia?
A predisposition to schizophrenia is probably present among some children. The real symptoms of schizophrenia usually occur between the ages of 15 and 30. However, it is dangerous to think that children who behave differently will get schizophrenia later in life.
How can you recognise schizophrenia?
The following symptoms may be early warning signs of schizophrenia (however, none of these symptoms is specific to schizophrenia):
- social withdrawal and not spending much time with people their own age
- memory loss
- perception disorders:when objects suddenly change size or colour
- paranoia: they think someone is talking about them and things are being done behind their back
- extreme preoccupation with religion, philosophy, the occult, etc
- thought disorders: incoherent, illogical or abstract arguments
- depressionaggression, irritability, unexpected hostility
- sleep disorders: often awake at night and sleeping during the day
- fear, shaking hands, trembling voice
- deterioration of personal hygiene
- delusions
Is it possible to anticipate schizophrenia?
Schizophrenia is mostly only noticed when the delusions and hallucinations are already in evidence. The difficulty in making an early diagnosis is that none of the symptoms are specific for schizophrenia.
How is schizophrenia treated?
The treatment is based upon medication.
Medication which is used to treat schizophrenia is referred to as antipsychotic medication. Antipsychotic medication helps to keep the delusions and hallucinations under control.
The medication doesn't have the same effect on everyone. Some people are not helped at all and others not enough.
If the medication helps, it often needs to be taken over a long period of time, even when the patient is already feeling better. This is to prevent any symptoms from recurring.
Good counselling can also be helpful. People with schizophrenia are acutely sensitive to their surroundings and to setbacks in everyday life. And people with schizophrenia require strong structure in their lives. They require support and motivation to go to counselling and to take their required medication.
Is recovery from schizophrenia possible?
Yes, approximately a quarter of patients recover completely.
Three-quarters of patients continue to suffer from symptoms to a certain extent. Sometimes, the symptoms keep on recurring. Some patients need to deal with the symptoms permanently.
About 40% of patients live in a psychiatric hospital or sheltered accommodation.
