Schizophrenia: Causes, Symptoms and Management

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder which is characterized by decreased ability to understand reality, abnormal behaviour and strange speech. Schizophrenia manifests symptoms like hallucinations, false beliefs, confused thinking, reduced emotional expression and lack of motivation. It is caused by environmental and genetic factors. Environmental factors involve use of cannabis during adolescence, specific infections, poor nutrition, etc. Genetic factors involve a variety of common and rare genetic variants. People with schizophrenia suffer from additional mental health problems such as anxiety and depression. Schizophrenia has both positive and negative symptoms. Positive symptoms are delusions, disordered thoughts, hallucinations, etc. Most people do not normally experience these symptoms but they are present in people with schizophrenia. Negative symptoms are little emotions, lack of desire, lack of motivation, etc. The treatment of schizophrenia includes antipsychotic medication, along with counseling, and social rehabilitation. This book provides comprehensive insights into schizophrenia. Different approaches, evaluations, methodologies and advanced studies on this disorder have been included in this book. It is a vital tool for all researching and studying psychiatry.