Wikipedia:VideoWiki/Schizophrenia

Definition
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder, characterized by abnormal behavior, strange speech, and a decreased ability to understand reality.

Symptoms
Other symptoms of schizophrenia can include false beliefs, unclear (or confused) thinking, and hearing voices that do not exist. There may also be reduced social engagement, and a lack of motivation.

Associated mental health disorders
People with schizophrenia can also have additional mental health problems, such as anxiety, depression, or substance-use disorders.

Onset of symptoms
These symptoms typically come on gradually in young adulthood, and in many cases, they never resolve. Males are also more likely to be affected than females and, on average, experience more severe symptoms.

Cause
Even though a combination of genetic, and environmental factors play a role in the development of schizophrenia, family genetics has the largest impact. For instance, the chances of someone acquiring the disease, if they have a parent, child or sibling who has it, is six-and-a-half percent.

Environmental factors
Despite the impact of genetics, roughly 20% of the risk of the disease comes from environmental factors. These factors include, being raised in a city, certain infections, the age of a person's parents, cannabis use during adolescence, and poor nutrition during pregnancy.



Genetic factors
The genetics of schizophrenia is equally complex. There are many rare genetic variants known to be involved in schizophrenia, each with a small effect, and an unknown risk of transmission to children.

Diagnosis
Diagnosis is based on observed behavior, the person's reported experiences, and reports of others familiar with the person. During diagnosis, a person's culture must also be taken into account. As of 2013, there is no objective test.

Confusion with dissociative identity disorder
Schizophrenia does not imply a "split personality", or dissociative identity disorder. The two have been confused in public perception, but are separate illnesses.

Treatment
The mainstay of treatment is anti-psychotic medication, along with counselling, job training, and social rehabilitation.

Antipsychotic medication
When medication is used, it is unclear whether typical, or atypical anti-psychotics are better.

Additional medication
If a person's disease is not well controlled with anti-psychotics alone, then clozapine may also be tried.

Hospitalizations
In more serious situations, where there is a risk to themselves or others, involuntary hospitalization may be necessary. With modern treatments, admissions to hospital are now shorter, and less frequent than they once were.

Epidemiology
About 0.3 to 0.7% of people are affected by schizophrenia during their lifetimes, and in 2013, there were an estimated 23.6 million cases globally.

Social effects
Unfortunately, few people with schizophrenia recover completely, and 50% will have a life-long impairment. Because of this disability, social problems such as long-term unemployment, poverty, and homelessness, are common.

Prognosis
Schizophrenia also lowers life expectancy, because of the increased risk of suicide. In 2015, an estimated 17,000 people worldwide died from behavior related to, or caused by, schizophrenia.