Trivia: Schizophrenia

• A schizophrenia seminar from the June 19, 2004 issue of The Lancet provides the following overview: "Schizophrenia is a mental illness that is among the world's top 10 causes of long-term disability. About 1% of the population is affected by schizophrenia, with similar rates across different countries, cultural groups, and sexes. … The cause of schizophrenia is unknown, but evidence suggests that genetic factors, early environmental influences (e.g., obstetric complications), and social factors (e.g., poverty) contribute. No biological alterations are pathognomonic of schizophrenia, although several pathophysiological differences exist in a wide range of brain structures."

• Schizophrenia runs in families: As mentioned, about 1% of the population has schizophrenia, but it is seen in 10% of people with a first-degree relative (a parent or sibling) with the disorder, and in cases of identical twins, if one twin develops schizophrenia, the other has a 40% to 65% chance of developing it.

• In males, psychotic symptoms usually emerge during their late teens or early 20s; in females, these symptoms usually appear in their mid-20s to early 30s. Symptoms seldom occur after age 45 and only rarely before puberty.

• The three broad categories of schizophrenia symptoms are: positive (i.e., unusual thoughts or perceptions, such as hallucinations, delusions, thought disorder, movement disorders); negative (i.e., a decrease in or loss of the ability to speak, express emotion, initiate plans); cognitive (i.e., attention or memory problems).

• An article in the October 2002 issue of Neuropsychology was able to classify patients into three distinctive subgroups, with significantly different profiles of memory and brain measures, suggesting that schizophrenia may not be a single disease, but rather an array of disorders whose psychiatric and cognitive symptoms vary according to which part of the brain is affected and to what degree.

• There is no cure for schizophrenia, and current treatments include drugs (conventional, or "typical" antipsychotics, or new generation, or "atypical" antipsychotics), psychosocial therapy, educational/vocational training, etc.

• National Institute of Mental Health's Schizophrenia Page

• WebMD.com's Schizophrenia Health Center

• Mayo Clinic's Schizophrenia page

• Schizophrenia Society of Canada/Société canadienne de la schizophrénie

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