Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a disease that makes it hard to think clearly, manage emotions, and interact with other people. It can cause:

• Delusions. These are beliefs that are not real.
• Hallucinations. These are things that you may see or hear that are not really there.
• Paranoia. This is the belief that others are lying, cheating, using you, or trying to harm you.

The disease may change your ability to enjoy life, express emotions, or function. You may hear voices or behave strangely. You may also keep to yourself or have trouble speaking or understanding speech.

You may need lifelong treatment with medicines and counseling. This helps keep the disease under control.

When schizophrenia is not treated, the risks are higher for suicide, a hospital stay, and other problems. Early treatment called coordinated specialty care (CSC) may help a person who is having their first episode of psychotic thoughts. Ask your doctor about CSC.

Experts don't know what causes schizophrenia. It may have different causes for different people. Some causes may be related to:

Genetics.

Your chances of getting schizophrenia are greater if your parent, brother, or sister has it. But most people who have a family member with schizophrenia don't get it.

Brain chemistry and structure.

Neurotransmitters send messages between parts of the brain. They may not work the right way in people who have schizophrenia.

Problems during pregnancy.

Schizophrenia may be related to problems during the mother's pregnancy that can harm a baby's developing brain and nervous system. These problems include poor nutrition and viral infections during pregnancy.

Schizophrenia isn't caused by anything you did, by personal weakness or bad choices, or by the way your parents raised you.

Symptoms of schizophrenia include:

Negative symptoms.

Negative doesn't mean bad. Negative symptoms are things that are lost from your personality or how you experience life. You may:

• Not care about things.
• Have no interest in or drive to do things.
• Not take care of yourself, such as not bathing or not eating regularly.
• Find it hard to say how you feel.

Positive symptoms.

Positive doesn't mean good. Positive symptoms are things added or new to your personality or how you experience life. They include:

• Hearing or seeing things that aren't there (hallucinations).
• Having thoughts or ideas that aren't true (delusions).
• Thoughts and speech that are confusing.

Cognitive symptoms.

These symptoms have to do with how you think. They can include:

• Memory loss.
• Not being able to understand things well enough to make decisions.
• Having trouble talking clearly to others.

Symptoms usually start as a teen or young adult, but they may start later in life.

Your doctor will ask you questions about your health and about any symptoms you may have had, such as hearing voices or having confusing thoughts. You'll have a physical exam.

Your doctor also may suggest tests to rule out other conditions with similar symptoms or to diagnose other schizophrenia disorders. These tests may include blood tests and a CT scan or an MRI. The CT scan or MRI will check the size, structure, and function of your brain.

Medicines can help treat your symptoms. And counseling and therapy help you change how you think about things and deal with the illness.

Recovery usually is a lifelong process. In the recovery process, you learn to cope with your symptoms and challenges, find and meet your goals, and get the support you need.

The goals of treatment and recovery are to:

• Reduce or stop symptoms.
• Reduce the number of relapses.
• Make a personal plan for your recovery by setting and meeting goals for home, work, and relationships.

If medicine and therapy aren't helping you, your doctor may suggest electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). In this procedure, your doctor uses electricity to create a brief and mild seizure. This may change your brain chemistry and help your symptoms.

If you struggle with alcohol, drugs, or tobacco or have other mental health problems, such as depression, you will need to treat these problems too.

Schizophrenia is a complex illness. Experts don't know what causes it or why some people get it and others don't. But some things increase your chances of getting it. These are called risk factors.

You may be at risk for schizophrenia if:

• Your mother, father, brother, or sister has it.
• Your mother had certain problems while she was pregnant with you. For example, you may have a higher risk if your mother didn't get enough to eat (malnutrition), had a viral infection, or took certain medicines for high blood pressure.
• You or a family member has another disorder that's like schizophrenia. An example of this is a delusional disorder, which means that you believe things that you know are false.
• You have substance use disorder. Experts don't know if substance use triggers schizophrenia or if schizophrenia makes a person more likely to have this problem.