Schizophrenia is a psychosis, a type of mental illness characterized by distortions in thinking, perception, emotions, language, sense of self and behaviour.
Common experiences include:
hallucination: hearing, seeing or feeling things that are not there;
delusion: fixed false beliefs or suspicions not shared by others in the person’s culture and that are firmly held even when there is evidence to the contrary;
abnormal behaviour: disorganised behaviour such as wandering aimlessly, mumbling or laughing to self, strange appearance, self-neglect or appearing unkempt;
disorganised speech: incoherent or irrelevant speech; and/or
disturbances of emotions: marked apathy or disconnect between reported emotion and what is observed such as facial expression or body language.
Causes of schizophrenia: Research has not identified one single factor. It is thought that an interaction between genes and a range of environmental factors may cause schizophrenia. Psychosocial factors may also contribute to schizophrenia.
Management: Schizophrenia is treatable. Treatment with medicines and psychosocial support is effective.
The usual age of onset for adult Schizophrenia is 15 to 25 years although it can be seen as early as 5 years of age. However, childhood-onset schizophrenia (COS) is a rare condition with onset before the age of 13 years, which rises steadily through adolescence and reaches its peak in early adult life.
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