Schizophrenia

            Schizophrenia is one of the most serious and complex disorders of the mind. The disease is an abnormal decay of the person's mental functions. Schizophrenia is an often-misunderstood disease; it is usually confused with Multiple Personality Disorder. According to Webster's Dictionary Schizophrenia is defined as any of a group of psychotic disorders usually characterized by withdrawal from reality, illogical patterns of thinking, delusions, and hallucinations, and accompanied in varying degrees by other emotional, behavioral, or intellectual disturbances. Schizophrenia is associated with dopamine imbalances in the brain and defects of the frontal lobe and is caused by genetic, other biological, and psychosocial factors. All these factors force the person to require medical attention constantly as they cannot face the daily tasks of their lives. Schizophrenics who also suffer from inappropriate moods, hallucinations and delusions, make them highly unpredictable to care for or treat effectively. Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that severely impacts how millions of Americans think feel and act. It is a disorder that makes it difficult for a person to tell the difference between real and imagined experiences, to think logically, to express normal emotional responses or to behave normally in social situations, also the disease has many types of medications to help its patients.
             Schizophrenia affects men and women equally, and either way there is always a heavy burden on the family. E. Fuller Torrey states, "Work on schizophrenia show that exactly one out every hundred people in the United will be diagnosed with schizophrenia"(3). Schizophrenia can be draining on both the person with schizophrenia and their families. People with schizophrenia often have difficulty functioning in society at work and in school. The families have a heavy burden because they have to help out financially and make sure that medication is taken as prescribed.