What Is Schizophrenia? Symptoms, Causes, and Treatment

TheIndonesia.id - Schizophrenia is a mental health disorder that can affect behavior, emotions, and communication. People with schizophrenia can experience hallucinations, delusions, confused thoughts, and changes in behavior.

Based on World Health Organization (WHO) data, there are more than 20 million people worldwide suffering from schizophrenia. 

It should be noted that people with schizophrenia have a 2–3 times higher risk of dying at a young age. Schizophrenia is generally accompanied by other diseases, such as heart disease, diabetes, or infection. In addition, people with schizophrenia are also prone to attempt suicide.

Symptoms and Causes

Schizophrenia is often confused with psychosis, even though the two are different. Psychosis is one symptom of mental disorders, such as bipolar disorder, delusions, major depression, and schizophrenia. Although symptoms of psychosis can appear in schizophrenia, not all sufferers with schizophrenia definitely experience them.

Schizophrenia symptoms are divided into positive symptoms and negative symptoms. Positive symptoms are characterized by a change in perception, making the sufferer behaves unnaturally. On the other hand, negative symptoms are characterized by the inability of sufferers to socialize.

The causes of schizophrenia are not specifically known. However, there are factors that probably increase the occurrence of schizophrenia, including genetic factors and environmental influences.

Treatment and Prevention

Until now, there is no medicine that can cure schizophrenia. However, there are treatments to control the sufferer to be able to live a normal life.

The treatment is psychotherapy, drug consumption, and therapies such as electroconvulsive or administering electromagnetic waves to the brain.

Schizophrenia cannot be completely prevented, because it can be triggered by genetic factors and an imbalance of brain substances.