Schizophrenia fact sheet

Friday, May 14, 2004

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Facts about schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a devastating brain disease that directly affects one in 100 Australians by interfering with their ability to think clearly, manage emotions, make decisions and relate to others.
Schizophrenia is responsible for more deaths per year than leukaemia, SIDS and MS combined.
Until the mid 20th Century, the body of knowledge about asthma was minimal – as were the means to relieve and prevent it. The real cause was not known, nor was it properly diagnosed.
The first signs of the disorder typically emerge during a person’s teenage years or twenties. Ten percent of patients will commit suicide, while others undergo a lifetime battle with the disease.
In the early 20th Century warehousing of mental health patients was common in Australia as was the use of shock and psychosurgery to treat schizophrenia. Prefrontal lobotomy was often successful in many patients but haphazardly destroyed parts of the brain and left patients dull and listless.
In the 1950s the most important advance in treatment occurred with the development of antipsychotic drugs. Chlorpromazine, the first drug of its kind, was introduced in 1954 and, by the 1970s, more than 85% of patients with schizophrenia were receiving it or a similar drug.
New ‘atypical’ antipsychotics were introduced in the 1990s. Whilst being equally as effective as older medications in treating hallucinations and delusions, they tend to be better at relieving symptoms like withdrawal, thinking problems and lack of energy.
Current ‘best practice’ is to use one of the atypical antipsychotics as a first line treatment option for newly diagnosed patients and psychosocial rehabilitation programs to provide support and help with the routine daily challenges of life.
Whilst treatment for schizophrenia has dramatically improved in the past few decades, most patients still suffer side-effects from their medication, such as substantial weight-gain. Many patients, for a variety of reasons, do not stick with their treatment on an ongoing basis, causing further psychotic episodes.
Scientists still do not understand exactly how the brain works and what causes schizophrenia, however with a growing body of knowledge, new brain imaging techniques and gene chipping technologies now at their disposal, there is great promise for the development of more effective treatments and the means to prevent the disease in future.

	This information has been produced by Research Australia for "Thank You" Day - a new initiative to raise public awareness of the benefits of health and medical research and to encourage the community to send a note of thanks to researchers who are doing work special to them. Go to the Thank You Day website.