Global Prevalence of Schizophrenia

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She thought that every new venue she went to was just a new act in a play. She thought she was acting a role in a play. She thought she was just doing her job. She thought she was an innocent soul. Schizophrenics don’t think they do anything wrong and that’s where we, the ones who aren’t medically determined as schizophrenic, judge accordingly. We judge them like they’re stupid, but to themselves they’re not.

​Albert Einstein’s son, Eduard, was a man who dreamed of becoming a psychiatrist who developed schizophrenia by the age of twenty years. Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd also suffered from schizophrenia. He started showing the symptoms of inexplicable actions, delusions, social withdrawal, disorganized thinking, and paranoia in his late teens and early twenties. His close friend from the band, Roger Waters, said Barrett’s use of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) was most likely the primary cause of the disorder’s development. Mary Todd Lincoln, wife of Abraham Lincoln, had a very bipolar personality and also suffered from psychosis; delusions. She heard voices in the walls, and had periods of time where she would either wastefully spend or frugally save money.

​Schizophrenia can affect people throughout their entire life once they reach their late teen years and adulthood. It’s rare for young children or adults older than mid-twenties to develop the disorder, but still possible. In 2007, it was determined by professionals that there is no cure for schizophrenia; however, there are multiple treatments available and in the making. Antipsychotic medications and psycho-social therapies are used to treat patients suffering from schizophrenia, and have thus far had high success rates. According to the Treatment Advocacy Center, “today the leading theory of why people get schizophrenia is that it is a result of a genetic predisposition combined with an environmental exposures and / or stresses during pregnancy or childhood that contribute to, or trigger, the disorder.” 25% of people are completely recovered after 10 years of being diagnosed, 50% are either much improved or just improved, 15% are being hospitalized, and 10% died mostly from suicide. Schizophrenia is one example of the many mental illnesses that are highly overlooked, misunderstood, and feared. On the other hand, those disorders whom have been named after or for the first person who described them are well-known: Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and Down’s syndrome. In Richard Peschel’s opinion, schizophrenia should be renamed Kraepelin’s disorder or KD “in honor of the doctor who first described it, Emil Kraepelin.”

​We all suffer from schizophrenia in some way, whether we are diagnosed with it or not. As my fellow peers, I hope that you now have a better understanding of schizophrenia than you did before. Use your new knowledge wisely from now on, especially before laughing at that crazy homeless person on the train who just wanted to know your favorite color.