Schizophrenia
What is schizophrenia?
Schizophrenia is a complex mental health disorder that makes it hard for you to tell what’s real and what’s not. It severely affects how you think, feel and behave. Schizophrenia can lead to psychotic episodes and symptoms such as seeing or hearing things that aren't there or believing things that aren’t true.
Because schizophrenia distorts your thoughts and perceptions, it can be challenging to recognize the symptoms for those who have it. Often, it’s those around you who notice the signs first.
Living with schizophrenia — or caring for a loved one who has it — can significantly affect your daily life. But the good news is that with the right professional help, schizophrenia is treatable. Our behavioral health specialists are here to help you find the best schizophrenia treatment plan for you.
Symptoms of schizophrenia
Schizophrenia symptoms greatly vary from person to person. However, there are some common signs of schizophrenia that fall under two main categories:
Positive symptoms
These schizophrenia symptoms add to a person’s usual abilities and behaviors, such as:
- Seeing or hearing things that aren’t there
- Believing things that aren’t true
- Disorganized thinking and speech
- Unusual movements or postures
Negative symptoms
These schizophrenia symptoms take away from a person’s abilities and behaviors, such as:
- Being withdrawn or overly quiet
- Lack of motivation
- Speaking in a monotone or emotionless voice
- Avoiding eye contact
- Struggling to perform day-to-day tasks
- Neglecting personal hygiene
Someone with schizophrenia may experience a mix of both positive and negative symptoms.
If left untreated, schizophrenia symptoms can make life more challenging and lead to problems like:
- Turning to drugs or alcohol to ease your symptoms
- Losing your job or housing
- Difficulties maintaining friendships or relationships
- Experiencing depression or anxiety
- Committing self-harm
- Difficulty telling difference between reality and imagination
- Having suicidal thoughts or attempting suicide
If you or someone you love is showing signs of schizophrenia, it’s important to talk to your doctor as soon as possible. With the right treatment plan, schizophrenia can be effectively managed — and you can live a healthy, full life.
Causes of schizophrenia
The exact cause of schizophrenia is unknown. However, researchers believe that several factors may contribute to developing the condition:
- Genetics: Schizophrenia often runs in families, but there is no single gene known to cause it. To date, over 130 genes have been identified, which all contribute to risk.
- Differences in brain development: The brains of some people with schizophrenia look different on scans. While not everyone diagnosed with schizophrenia has these variations, it may suggest that a brain disorder causes the condition.
- Neurotransmitters: Imbalances in brain chemicals called neurotransmitters, which carry messages between brain cells, may cause schizophrenia.
- Pregnancy and birth complications: Problems before or during birth (like infections) might increase the chance of having schizophrenia.
Certain things can also trigger schizophrenia in people who are already at risk:
- Stressful life events, such as losing a loved one, divorce and abuse
- Alcohol or drug misuse, particularly stimulants drugs (amphetamines) and Marijuana (cannabis)
- Ongoing stressful environments
Types of schizophrenia
Doctors used to categorize schizophrenia into different types, including paranoid schizophrenia and disorganized schizophrenia, based on a person’s symptoms. But this approach was limited in diagnosing and treating schizophrenia since symptoms vary significantly from one person to another, can change over time and often overlap among the previous types.
Healthcare providers now consider the broad range of symptoms and their intensities to develop more personalized treatments that address how the condition uniquely manifests in each person.
Who is at risk for schizophrenia?
It’s not fully understood why someone develops schizophrenia. But certain risk factors increase your chance of doing so:
- Family history: Schizophrenia tends to run in families, so having blood relatives with schizophrenia raises your risk of developing it.
- Drug misuse: Using certain recreational drugs, especially cannabis, LSD, cocaine or amphetamines, may trigger schizophrenia in people who are predisposed to it.
- Brain development and birth: Complications during pregnancy and birth can impact brain development and influence your risk for schizophrenia. Your risk is higher if your birthing parent had malnutrition, gestational diabetes, preeclampsia or exposure to toxins or viruses during their pregnancy. Premature birth is also a risk factor.
Schizophrenia treatment options
While there’s no cure for schizophrenia, it is treatable. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that one in three people who undergo schizophrenia treatment have complete remission.
At Main Line Health, our behavioral health specialists will work with you to determine a tailored schizophrenia treatment plan for you. Your care may include one or more of the following treatments:
- Medication: Medication can help control your schizophrenia symptoms. These may include antipsychotics and other drugs that reduce the effects of your schizophrenia medication.
- Therapy: Working with a trained therapist can help you understand and learn how to manage your schizophrenia. This may include Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), family therapy and art therapy.
Diagnosis and testing for schizophrenia
In order to diagnose schizophrenia, your behavioral health specialist will conduct an evaluation through tests that may include:
- Exam: You'll discuss your symptoms and medical history with your doctor to rule out any other conditions such as stroke, brain injury, heavy metal toxicity or tumors.
- Psychological assessment: Your doctor will ask questions to assess the impact of your symptoms on your overall health.
- Imaging tests: Your doctor may take images of your brain to monitor for structural changes using diagnostic testing such as computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). This can be important in differentiating schizophrenia from other disorders that might produce some similar symptoms.
- Other tests: Your doctor may order blood, urine or cerebrospinal fluid (spinal tap) tests to look for certain indicators of chemical changes in your body.