There are many mental disorders whose root cause is the psyche of the person, particularly traumas from early childhood. But schizophrenia is a serious mental disorder caused by a disabling brain illness. About one percent of Americans are afflicted with this problem at any given time. It does not make much difference with sex and age, but becomes most apparent when people reach their teens.

Though it is clear that a brain disorder is the root cause, there is no concluding proof as to exactly what is the problem. There is much encouraging research to pin down the problem. The National Institute of Mental Health suggests that the most probable cause could be linked to faulty neuron connections during the development of the child in the womb. It lies dormant until puberty, and the effect may become visible afterwards. Persons with schizophrenia lose touch with the real world. Their perception of people and events starts divorcing from the reality. Their hallucinations, delusions and the strange voices that they hear are very real to them. They delude themselves into believing that they are the victims of cheating, persecution or conspiracy. Generally they lose the capacity for logically carrying out their thought process, particularly when a lot of thoughts crowd in the brain. Their emotions are rather subdued, and expressions mostly blank. Contrary to popular thinking, the schizophrenia is no more violent than a normal person. But the tendency for suicide is higher with schizophrenia.

Not knowing the exact cause or the mechanism of schizophrenia, the treatment is mainly symptomatic. Based on clinical experience, a whole series of anti-psychotic medications are available to the physician. The drugs effectively reduce and sometimes eliminate the symptoms. But there is no complete cure. Anti-depression, anti-anxiety and anti-convulsive drugs have also proved effective. In a small number of acute schizophrenia patients Electro-Convulsive Therapy (ECT) has proved very effective.

Though this is a brain disease and not a mental disorder, family support, social support and, more importantly, psychotherapy are other factors that can help the patient enormously. A lot of research has gone into getting to the root cause of the problem but a lot more still needs to be done. The efforts include genetic, brain and epidemiological studies.

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