What is Schizophrenia?

"Starway," an illustration by a schizophrenia patient

What is Schizophrenia?

Schizophrenia is a form of mental illness in which a person may hear or see hallucinations, experience delusions, and have difficulty thinking and relating to people. It is often disabling, and can cause much pain and anxiety in a person's life and in that of his or her loved ones. Schizophrenia usually begins in males in the late teens to early twenties, and in women in the mid-twenties to early thirties. However, it can be treated, with medication and psychotherapy. Some people with schizophrenia are able to recover and live a full, happy life! Scientists know that it is caused by a mixture of genetic and environmental influences, and more and more clues to its genetic roots are turning up almost by the month. As these discoveries are shared, there is much hope that treatments targeted at its roots may produce a "cure" within a generation.

Symptoms of Schizophrenia

Until someone finds proper treatment, schizophrenia can be very hard to live with.

Hallucinations

People with schizophrenia often hear voices or see things that no one else can perceive. Even though these originate within their minds instead of outside, they may not be able to make that distinction. They may also feel strange physical sensations such as pressures in their head or "phantom" pains. People with the illness often spend much of their time paying attention to these sensations, and this may make them withdrawn from the real world around them.

Delusions

People with schizophrenia may also have ideas about their world that do not fit with the reality that others perceive. They may think that people around them (or people they imagine) can sense or control their thoughts. They may think that they are the focus of conspiracies to harm them. With these delusions, the world may seem scary and hostile to someone with this disorder.

Thought Disorders

Thinking coherently can be hard for someone with schizophrenia. Listening to other people, connecting thoughts, and expressing oneself understandably can be a moment-to-moment challenge.

Emotional Impairment

Schizophrenia also has so-called "negative" symptoms. One may feel a reduced interest in day-to-day life or in having fun. Interacting with people, growing relationships, and even feeling and expressing one's own emotions may not come naturally.

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Treatments for Schizophrenia

There are a variety of medicines for treating schizophrenia, and a doctor can work with each patient to determine which one (or combination) works best for them. These medicines work best taken on a regular, long-term basis, and the proper dose must be found to balance the drug's helpful effects with its side effects.

Today, "atypical" antipsychotic medications such as aripiprazole (Abilify®), clozapine (Clozaril®), olanzapine (Zyprexa®), quetiapine (Seroquel®), risperidone (Risperdal®) and ziprasidone (Geodon®) are prescribed most often for new schizophrenia patients. These drugs can not only relieve "positive" symptoms of schizophrenia (such as hallucinations) but can also help reduce its "negative" symptoms (such as emotional flatness). They are also less likely to disrupt a patient's motor coordination less than the older "typical" antipsychotics, although each has its own potentially troublesome side effects, such as weight gain and increased diabetes risk.

"Typical" antipsychotics, such as chlorpromazine (Thorazine®), haloperidol (Haldol®), perphenazine (Etrafon®, Trilafon®) and fluphenzine (Prolixin®) are still often used for schizophrenia patients who have already been successful with them.

All of these medications really can help a someone to stabilize their symptoms well enough that psychotherapy and personal experience can teach them to live a full, rich life again. Emotions can return in all their subtlety and warmth. Thoughts about the world can begin to make sense again. Indeed, someone newly recovered from schizophrenia can be nicely surprised to find love and meaning all around.

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Dr. Daniel Weinberger gives a seminar at Music Festival 2006 on new discoveries in the genetics of brain disorders.

New Discoveries in Schizophrenia Research Supported by the Music Festival for Mental Health

Since schizophrenia runs in families, it has been known for a long time that one's genes can contribute to risk for the disease. Now, scientists are investigating with more focus (and success!) than ever before to figure out just what combinations of genes can lead to the disease. Today, several risk-inducing genes have been identified and are under study, by researchers at University of Texas Southwestern (Dr. Andrew Pieper), Johns Hopkins University (Dr. Akira Sawa), Rutgers (Dr. Linda Brzustowicz), University of North Carolina (Dr. Eva Anton), and many others. And, new frontiers in psychotherapy are being pursued by scientists at UCSF (led by Dr. Sophia Vinogradov), where patients can enroll in a program to play computer games that improve their cognition, and at UCLA's CAPPS center (led by Dr. Ty Cannon), where psychiatrists are learning to avert schizophrenia before it begins. You can read more about cutting-edge programs at these institutions funded by the Music Festival for Mental Health on our research page.

Would you like to contribute to this research? You can join our festival to help find a cure!