Schizophrenia is a chronic, severe, complex, and debilitating psychiatric disorder. People living with schizophrenia have disturbances in perception, thoughts, speech, drive, cognition, emotion, motivation and/or motor activity. Due to these symptoms, people who have schizophrenia can appear to have lost touch with reality, making it difficult for them to participate in everyday activities. It is estimated that approximately 1% of the U.S. population is living with schizophrenia.
Diagnosis
Schizophrenia is typically diagnosed in the late teen years to early thirties and tends to emerge earlier in males than in females.
Cause
One of the main hypotheses for the pathophysiology leading to schizophrenia is an imbalance in neurochemical signaling in the brain, including serotonin, dopamine, and glutamate.
Symptoms of schizophrenia are typically grouped into three categories:
Psychotic or Positive
Such as hallucinations, delusions, thought disorder, and movement disorder;
Negative Symptoms
Such as loss of motivation, interest, or enjoyment in daily activities, withdrawal from social life, and difficulty in showing emotions; and
Cognitive Symptoms
Such as problems in attention, concentration, and memory.
