Psychotherapy is any form of treatment for psychological or emotional disorders in which a trained person establishes a relationship with one or several patients for the purpose of modifying or removing existing symptoms and promoting personality growth.
Before I start going in depth about schizophrenia there is are some facts that you need to know about it. First, schizophrenia is a disease that strikes young people in their prime. The disease distorts the senses, making it very difficult for the individual to tell what is real from what is not real. Usual age of onset is between 16 and 25. Schizophrenia is a medical illness and treatment works. Schizophrenia is not a split personality. It is also not caused by childhood trauma, bad parenting, or poverty, the result of any action or personal failure by the individual. Lastly, early diagnosis and stabilization on modern treatment can greatly improve prognosis for the illness.
Schizophrenia is found all over the world in all races, in all cultures and in all social classes. It affects a 1 in 100 person worldwide, that's around 290,000 people. For men, the age of onset for schizophrenia is often ages 16 to 20. For women, the age of onset is sometimes later in the ages of 20 to 30. People occupy more hospital beds in Canada, around 8%, with schizophrenia than by sufferers of any other medical condition. The cost to the Canadian society due to hospitalization, disability payments, welfare payments, and lost wages ranks in the billions of dollars annually. Other cost, such as loss of individual potential, personal anguish, and family hardship are impossible to measure. .
Researchers now agree that while they still do not know what causes schizophrenia they are learning new things and the puzzle is becoming clearer. One of the areas of study includes biochemistry. People with schizophrenia appear to have a neurochemical imbalance.
