Statistics and Course of Schizophrenia
Rashmi Nemade, Ph.D. & Mark Dombeck, Ph.D., edited by Kathryn Patricelli, MASchizophrenia is not a terribly common disease but it can be a serious and life-long one. Between 0.3% and 0.7% of the population is diagnosed with schizophrenia. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) approximately 21 million people worldwide have schizophrenia (12 million males and 9 million females).
Schizophrenia can affect people throughout the lifespan. However, it is most likely to first appear in the late teen years and the mid-30s. It is fairly rare for children and older adults to develop schizophrenia, but it does happen. The rate of diagnosis of new cases increases in the teen years, reaching a peak of vulnerability between the ages of 16 and 25 years. Men and women show different patterns for developing the disorder. Males are more likely to have their first episode in the early to mid-20s. Females have two points where the first episodes are most likely to happen. The first is in the late-20s and the second is after 40 years of age.
Course of Illness
Before the full onset of schizophrenia happens, there is typically an earlier period where odd behaviors and experiences, such as anxiety, restlessness and hallucinations begin to happen. However, they are not yet at their fullest force. There may be a gradual loss of reality. Many people with schizophrenia describe the start of odd feelings, thoughts and understandings a few months before anyone else sees the evidence of them. It can be quite difficult to recognize schizophrenia during this early stage. The person may have been hearing criticizing voices and experiencing delusional thoughts for some time. However, these symptoms may not have been overwhelming or frightening enough to have caused them to break down and act in a bizarre manner. People experiencing these symptoms for the first time may be able to hide them for a while. This becomes more difficult as they begin to lose touch with reality and their actions begin to reflect their inner troubles.
Schizophrenia is not generally recognized to be happening until after truly odd and irrational behaviors are expressed during what is called a "psychotic break", or "first break." Though the person's internal experience during hallucinations or delusions may be terrifying, it is the outward symptoms of the psychotic break that are noticed by family members and others. These include changes in:
- self-care
- sleeping or eating patterns
- weakness
- lack of energy
- headaches
- changes in school or work performance
- strange sensations
- confused, strange, or bizarre thinking that gets expressed as bizarre behavior
The actual break with reality may happen before people around the person have noticed that something is seriously wrong. When schizophrenia does occur, it often becomes an ongoing condition that continues throughout the rest of the person's life with different levels of intensity. The "first break" may be the last break if the case of schizophrenia is mild and if treatment happens promptly and is continued as directed by a psychiatrist (a medical doctor specializing in mental health issues). Typically, however, the first break leads to a pattern of 'residual' and 'active' phases In the residual phase, the person is mostly recovered and symptom free. Then new periods happen where symptoms return. This rise and fall of symptoms often continues for the rest of the person's life.
Outcomes and Recovery Factors of Schizophrenia
Resources
-
Articles
-
What is Schizophrenia?
- An Introduction to Schizophrenia Spectrum & Other Psychotic Disorders
- What Schizophrenia Is Not
- Statistics and Course of Schizophrenia
- Outcomes and Recovery Factors of Schizophrenia
- Disability and Schizophrenia
- Symptoms of Schizophrenia
- Positive Symptoms of Schizophrenia: The Psychotic Dimension
- Positive Symptoms Continued and Negative Symptoms
- Evidence That Schizophrenia is a Brain Disease
- Schizophrenia Stigma and Violence
-
Schizophrenia Symptoms and Diagnosis
- Formal DSM Schizophrenia Spectrum and Other Psychotic Disorders Diagnoses
- Symptoms of Schizoid Personality Disorder
- Symptoms of Schizotypal Personality Disoders
- Symptoms of Brief Psychotic Disorder
- Symptoms of Psychotic Disorder Due to a Medical Condition
- Symptoms of Substance/Medication-Induced Psychotic Disorder
- Symptoms of Delusional Disorder
- Symptoms of Schizophrenia
- Symptoms of Schizoaffective Disorder
- Symptoms of Schizophreniform Disorder
- Schizophrenia Diagnostic Considerations
- Catatonia Associated with Another Mental Disorder (Catatonia Specifier)
- Catatonia Due to Another Medical Condition
- Unspecified Catatonia and Unspecified Schizophrenia Spectrum and Other Psychotic Disorder
- Schizophrenia Spectrum and Other Psychotic Disorder Diagnosis Issues
-
Schizophrenia Treatment
- Treatment: Identification of Schizophrenic Patients
- Schizophrenia Medication Treatment Options
- Schizophrenia Treatment - Antipsychotic Medications
- Schizophrenia Treatment - Hospitalization
- Schizophrenia Treatment - Outpatient Options
- Schizophrenia Treatment - Housing and Self-Help Options
- Treatment - Family Support
-
Schizophrenia References
- Schizophrenia References
-
What is Schizophrenia?
-
Questions and Answers
- Mentally ill Daughter
- Am I Crazy?
- I See and Hear Things, What's Wrong With Me?
- I Think I Have a Mental Illness
- How to Handle my Mothers State of Mind?
- Schizophrenia
- Schizophrenic Relapse !
- My Little Girl
- What To Do?
- Paranoid Schizophrenia Diagnosis
-
23 more
- Pregnant with A Mental Illness
- Help
- Am I Schizophrenic?
- Extreme Psychopathy/sociopathy?
- voices
- Am i schizophrenic?
- What Are Some Coping Skills for Paranoia?
- hearing voices, uncertain and scared
- A very low threshold for stress tolerance
- Am I going to do this?
- Hearing Voices
- night fears
- Is this Schizophrenia?
- losing personality wholness
- Pregnant and Possibly Schizophrenic
- Medication problem
- My Schizophrenic sister refuses treatment
- My Nephew Sees Angels
- Two cases of likely paranoia ...
- i have always believed someone was watching me
- A Librarian in Illinois asks:
- Am I Schizophrenic?
- Is Paranoia A Destiny?
-
Book & Media Reviews
- 10% Happier
- A Beautiful Mind
- A Beautiful Mind
- A Beautiful Mind
- A Colorful History of Popular Delusions
- Angelhead
- Beyond Madness
- Clues
- Cognitive Theories of Mental Illness
- Daddy's Girls
-
38 more
- Dante's Cure
- Defeating the Voices
- Diagnosis: Schizophrenia
- Diagnosis: Schizophrenia
- How to Become a Schizophrenic
- I am Not Sick I Don't Need Help!
- I Never Promised You a Rose Garden
- Imagining Robert
- Julien Donkey-Boy
- Juvenile-Onset Schizophrenia
- Living Outside Mental Illness
- Living With Schizophrenia
- Living with Schizophrenia
- Mad in America
- No One Cares About Crazy People
- Phenomology & Lacan on Schizophrenia, After the Decade of the Brain
- Recovery from Schizophrenia
- Saints, Scholars, and Schizophrenics: Mental Illness in Rural Ireland
- Schizophrenia
- Schizophrenia
- Schizophrenia Revealed
- Schizophrenia: A Scientific Delusion?
- Social Cognition and Schizophrenia
- Street Crazy
- Surviving Schizophrenia
- Surviving Schizophrenia
- The Art of Adolf Wolfli
- The Collected Schizophrenias
- The Early Stages of Schizophrenia
- The Eden Express
- The Epidemiology of Schizophrenia
- The Invisible Plague
- The Madness of Adam and Eve
- The Outsider
- The Quiet Room
- Toxic Psychiatry
- Transforming Madness
- Wrestling with the Angel
-
Links
- [1] Articles
- [2] Associations
- [1] Government
- [12] Information
- [1] Research
- [12] Videos
-
Videos
- Raquea's Story: Finding What Works
- Treating First Episode Psychosis
- What is Schizophrenia?
- Corey's Story: One Door Closes, Another Opens
- Treatment of Schizophrenia
- Tell Me About Schizophrenia
- NAMI's Ask the Doctor Calls--Successful Aging with Schizophrenia
- Implementing Early Treatment of Psychosis -- RAISE Connection
- Schizophrenia & Dissociative Disorders
- What is Schizophrenia?
-
2 more
- Living With Schizophrenia
- Schizophrenia - A Quick Intro
Topics
-
Related Topic Centers
-
Addictions
-
Aging & Elder Care
-
Assessments & Interventions
-
Career & Workplace
-
Emotional Well-Being
-
Life Issues
-
Parenting & Child Care
-
Abuse
-
ADHD: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
-
Adoption
-
Autism
-
Child & Adolescent Development: Overview
-
Child & Adolescent Development: Puberty
-
Child Development & Parenting: Early (3-7)
-
Child Development & Parenting: Infants (0-2)
-
Child Development & Parenting: Middle (8-11)
-
Child Development & Parenting:Adolescence (12-24)
-
Child Development Theory: Adolescence (12-24)
-
Child Development Theory: Middle Childhood (8-11)
-
Childhood Mental Disorders and Illnesses
-
Childhood Special Education
-
Divorce
-
Family & Relationship Issues
-
Intellectual Disabilities
-
Learning Disorders
-
Oppositional Defiant Disorder
-
Parenting
-
Self Esteem
-
-
Psychological Disorders
-
Anxiety Disorders
-
Bipolar Disorder
-
Conversion Disorders
-
Depression: Depression & Related Conditions
-
Dissociative Disorders
-
Domestic Violence and Rape
-
Eating Disorders
-
Impulse Control Disorders
-
Intellectual Disabilities
-
Mental Disorders
-
Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorders
-
Personality Disorders
-
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
-
Schizophrenia
-
Sexual Disorders
-
Somatic Symptom and Related Disorders
-
Suicide
-
Tourettes and other Tic Disorders
-