What is schizophrenia ?

Schizophrenia is not ''double personality'' as one commonly thinks but instead is a psychotic disoder, relatively common, affecting men and women, which involves thought, perception, emotion and behavior.
The expression of these symptoms varies across patients and over time, but the effect of the illness is always severe and long lasting and medication is always necessary to control the symptoms.

What are the symptoms of schizophrenia ?

Schizophrenia includes many symptoms, the most frequent are :
1. Delusions which are false belief about external reality that is firmly held despite objective and obvious contradictory proof of evidence.
2. Hallucinations which are perceptions non existent in reality.
3. Bizarre ideas, strange behavior, sometimes an incoherent speech...
4. A tendency to isolation, a lack of interest, a negligence to look after himself...

It's not necessarily that all of these symptoms will be found. Several types of schizophrenia exist according to the presence of some or others symptoms. Moreover, these symptoms are not evident all the time, and we can see a schizophrenic acting ''normally'' which can be misleading.
Schizophrenia always leads to a lessing in the social and professional functioning (failure in school, difficulty to carry on a job, perturbation in social and personal relations...).

What are the causes of schizophrenia ?

The causes of schizophrenia are multiple and there's no one single factor which can explain on its own the occurence of schizophrenia :
1. Biological factors are very important and are always present; it consists of a dysregulation in certain substances present in the brain called neurotransmittors, which is responsible of the appearance of schizophrenic symptoms.
2. Genetic factors also play a part, in the sense that the occurence of schizophrenia is more frequent when a member of family already has the disease, which can suppose the existence of one or more genes implicated in schizophrenia.
3. Stress factors such as failure, death of a beloved, rupture... may have a part in the triggering of the symptoms, but are not the main cause responsible of schizophrenia.
4. Family factors may also take a part, but the exact relation between education, relationships with parents and schizophrenia is not elucidate yet.

At what age schizophrenia may start to show ?

Schizophrenia starts most frequently between 18 and 30 years, but it may starts earlier than 18 and later than 30 years old.

How can we suspect the presence of schizophrenia ?

Sometimes, schizophrenia may start abruptly; the person becomes agitated, with odd behavior, saying strange things...
Sometimes, the beginning may be slower, less '' loud '' ; we can then suspect the presence of schizophrenia by the presence of some symptoms like isolation, difficulties in study or work, a slightly strange behavior, some odd thoughts...
Whatever the way of beginning may be, the treatment is absolutely necessary and it has to be started as fast as possible to have the best results.

What is the treatment of schizophrenia ?

The main treatment of schizophrenia is constituted by medications. There is a lot of new medications which are more efficacious than before, which have less side effects, and which are a lot more easy to take.
Hospitalization is often necessary in the beginning of the treatment to calm the agitation, to watch over the patient and the treatment, and to make sure that the treatment is correctly taken.
Medications should not be stopped even if the person feels good, and must be continued for a long period, often lifetime, to prevent relapses which are extremely frequent in case of stopping the treatment.
Others ways of supporting the person are necessary like psychotherapy and social support ( helping him finding a job or an activity, dealing with the social and familial consequences of the disease... ).

What do you have to do if you think a family member is suffering from schizophrenia ?

One of the caracteristics of schizophrenia, which is very difficult to deal with, is the fact that persons suffering from schizophrenia don't admit that they are ill and say they have ''nothing''. In that case, they refuse the treatment, so when a medication is prescribed, they refuse to take it or they stopped it after some time or they pretend they're taking it.
So it's often difficult to persuade a person presenting symptoms of schizophrenia to see a psychiatrist and than to take the medication prescribed, and sometimes we should hospitalize and treat the person against his own will, because treatment is essential and represents the only way that will help the schizophrenic person get better.