Schizophrenia: Treatments, Symptoms, Signs
Learn more about schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a chronic, severe mental illness that affects men and women with equal frequency. People suffering from the disease may experience symptoms such as delusions, false personal beliefs held with conviction in spite of reason or evidence to the contrary, not explained by that person's cultural context; hallucinations, perceptions (can be sound, touch, smell, sight, or taste) that occur in the absence of an actual external stimulus (Auditory hallucinations are the most common type of hallucinations in schizophrenia.); disorganized thoughts and behaviors; disorganized speech; and, finally, catatonic behavior, in which the affected person's body may be rigid and the person may be unresponsive
Schizophrenia and other mental health disorders have criteria for diagnosis that includes the time of the onset of symptoms as well as the characteristics and length of symptoms. Active symptoms must be present for at least six months to be diagnosed with the illness.
Schizophrenia Symptoms
Signs of schizophrenia to look for in a loved one include social withdrawal, depersonalization, loss of appetite, loss of hygiene, delusions, hallucinations (eg, hearing things not actually present), and the sense of being controlled by outside forces. Often, a person with schizophrenia may not have any outward appearance of being ill. In other cases, the illness may be more apparent, causing bizarre behaviors. In active stages of the illness, those affected may ramble in illogical sentences or react with uncontrolled anger or violence to a perceived threat. People with schizophrenia may also experience relatively passive phases of the illness in which they seem to lack personality, movement, and emotion (also called a flat affect). Their behavior often veers between these two extremes, making their moods unpredictable and erratic.
Medical professionals have classified symptoms of schizophrenia into the following categories:
Positive symptoms – This includes hearing voices, suspiciousness, feeling under constant surveillance, delusions, or making up words without a meaning.
Negative symptoms – This includes social withdrawal, difficulty in expressing emotions, difficulty in taking care of themselves, and inability to feel pleasure.
Cognitive symptoms – This includes difficulties attending to and processing of information, in understanding the environment, and in remembering simple tasks
Affective symptoms – This is characterized by depression, which accounts for a very high rate of attempted suicide among schizophrenics.
Treatments
When it comes to treating acute psychosis and reducing the risk of future psychotic episodes, psychiatric medications are most effective. Schizophrenia treatment has two main phases: an acute phase, when higher doses might be necessary in order to treat psychotic symptoms, followed by a maintenance phase, which could be life-long. It is important to keep in mind that even with continued treatment, some patients experience relapses. By far, though, the highest relapse rates are seen when medication is discontinued.