What Is Meant By Schizophrenia?

The term schizophrenia literally means "shattered mind", from the Greek words "schizo" meaning "to divide", and "phren" meaning "mind". In popular culture this is sometimes interpreted as a "split personality", but actually schizophrenia is not multiple personality disorder at all, but more of a mental disorder where there is an impairment in perception and the recognition of reality, which causes the sufferer to have difficulty in functioning socially and work-wise.

The characteristics of schizophrenia are disordered thinking, delusions and, sometimes, hallucinations.

The diagnosis of schizophrenia is based upon the experiences that the patient reports, and the observations of the psychiatrist and other mental health workers.

There is no objective biological test for schizophrenia, and there is no known organic cause of it. Schizophrenia is assumed to be caused by a genetic predisposition, in combination with predisposing stressful environmental factors.

The onset of schizophrenia tends to happen around late adolescence to early adulthood, with males tending to show symptoms earlier than females.