Schizophrenia occurs in about 1 percent of the general U.S. population. That means that more than 3 million Americans suffer from the illness. The disorder manifests itself in a broad range of unusual behaviors, which ...

Throughout recorded history, the disease we now know as schizophrenia has been a source of bewilderment. Those suffering from the illness once were thought to be possessed by demons and were feared, tormented, exiled or ...

Antipsychotic medications reduce the risk of future psychotic episodes in patients who have recovered from an acute episode. Even with continued drug treatment, some people who have recovered will suffer relapses. Far higher relapse rates ...

Antipsychotic medications have been available since the mid-1950s. They have greatly improved the outlook for individual patients. These medications reduce the psychotic symptoms of schizophrenia and usually allow the patient to function more effectively and ...

A patient's support system may come from several sources, including the family, a professional residential or day program provider, shelter operators, friends or roommates, professional case managers, churches and synagogues, and others. Because many patients ...

Sometimes people confuse three mental disorders, only one of which could be referred to as "common" within the population -- bipolar disorder (also known as manic-depression), schizophrenia, and multiple personality disorder (also known by its ...

Medications for Schizophrenia and Psychotic Disorders A person who is psychotic is out of touch with reality. People with psychosis may hear "voices" or have strange and illogical ideas (for example, thinking that others can hear ...

I started out as a very troubled child. I had many problems and brushes with the law because of it. I was constantly battling my parents because I thought I was always right. School ...

I am currently 16 years old and live in New Jersey. When I was 6 years old, my parents got a divorce and I moved around New Jersey and New York State a few times. ...

I was born three months premature, along with my twin sister. I guess you could say that I was a fighter from the start, weighing in at only 1 lb. 9 oz. I was ...

I would perhaps start with explaining that everything that I say is honest and true, the reason being that some of it may be unbelievable, but then I find many of the stories I have ...

One possible cause of schizophrenia may be heredity, or genetics. Researchers believe that some people may inherit a tendency to schizophrenia. In fact, the disorder tends to run in families, but only among blood relatives. People ...

What is schizophrenia? Schizophrenia is a mental illness, but is sometimes incorrectly referred to as a "brain disease." It is officially classified by researchers as a mental disorder, not a medical disease, because there is no ...

The undifferentiated subtype is diagnosed when people have symptoms of schizophrenia that are not sufficiently formed or specific enough to permit classification of the illness into one of the other subtypes. The symptoms of any ...

This subtype is diagnosed when the patient no longer displays prominent symptoms. In such cases, the schizophrenic symptoms generally have lessened in severity. Hallucinations, delusions or idiosyncratic behaviors may still be present, but their ...