Health Conditions

What is it?

Schizophrenia is a severe and disabling mental illness that causes affected individuals to separate themselves from reality. It typically begins in late adolescence or early adulthood and is characterized by bizarre thoughts and behaviors, hallucinations, and disorganized speech. Schizophrenia is a chronic illness that can occur in episodic phases (referred to as acute psychosis) or in continuing and recurring patterns. While the onset of this illness can be either gradual or abrupt, often there is a period of time before the onset when the individual starts to withdraw from society, has diminished interest in work or school, experiences lapses in personal appearance and hygiene, and exhibits behavior that is out of the ordinary.

Different sub-types of schizophrenia exist; some examples are paranoid, catatonic, undifferentiated, disorganized, or residual schizophrenia. Each of these sub-types is associated with specific symptoms and features.

Some people mistakenly think that schizophrenia is the same as "split personality" disorder--like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde--but this is an incorrect belief. Split personality (or dissociative identity disorder) refers to a disorder in which parts of the person's personality split into distinct personalities. However, the split in schizophrenia (from its Greek root, "schizo,") refers to a split with reality.

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