Schizophrenia is a common mental disorder. According to the World Health Organization, every hundredth inhabitant of the planet, i.e. 1% of the population (more than 50 million) suffers from schizophrenia; for Belarus this figure reaches approximately 100 thousand people. What is schizophrenia? Schizophrenia is a disease that occurs with psychotic symptoms (loss of sense of reality, delusions, hallucinations), which significantly disrupt the patient’s behavior, change his thinking, emotional reactions, and perception of the environment. It usually begins between the ages of 15 and 25 years. However, schizophrenia often occurs before the age of 15 (childhood schizophrenia, adolescent schizophrenia) or even after 60 (late schizophrenia). The peak incidence occurs in men at 16-25 years, in women - at 28-35 years. Causes of the disease The causes of schizophrenia have not yet been identified. Scientists around the world have not come to a consensus; there are very different views on the reasons for its occurrence. The hypothesis of predisposition to stress (stress diathesis) has become widespread. According to it, a person may have a special biological predisposition to a disease that is triggered by stress and leads to symptoms of schizophrenia. Stresses may be genetic, biological, psychosocial, or environmental. Biological factors. In schizophrenia, disturbances in chemical processes in the brain tissue occur, which leads to changes in the passage of nerve impulses along the nerve pathways. Genetic factors. There is evidence of a certain role of heredity in schizophrenia. Thus, in families in which there are patients with schizophrenia, the incidence is higher than in the general population. Psychosocial and environmental factors. It is assumed that the characteristics of family upbringing and relationships in the patient’s family play a role in the occurrence of the disease. Emotional stress may also play a role: as it accumulates, successful psychological defense mechanisms are depleted and symptoms of psychosis develop. According to scientists, gender and age play a major role in the development of the disease. In men, the disease begins earlier and often proceeds continuously with a less favorable outcome. For women, the paroxysmal course of the disease is more typical, and the prognosis is generally more favorable. Signs of the onset of the disease and its course The clinic of schizophrenia is represented by a wide range of psychopathological manifestations. The most characteristic are: A feeling of outside control of thoughts and behavior; it seems to the patient that his feelings and thoughts are somehow becoming known to others; it may seem to him that the people around him are saying out loud what he is thinking about; there is a feeling of the possibility of transmitting thoughts at a distance, “telepathic mental communication.” Sometimes there is a feeling that the actions a person commits occur under the influence of an external force and do not belong to the patient. Crazy ideas. The emergence of false, persistent beliefs that contradict reality. Thus, the patient may claim that those around him influence his thoughts and actions with the help of hypnosis, special devices, etc. Thinking disorder. Patients complain of the inability to concentrate thoughts, difficulties in assimilation of material, uncontrollable flow of thoughts, blockage or stopping of thoughts, parallel thoughts. Hallucinatory voices commenting or discussing the patient's behavior. Influence on feelings, poverty of emotional reactions. A person may lose the opportunity to experience feelings appropriate to the situation: he may laugh when there is unpleasant news and cry when someone laughs. During an exacerbation, there may be a depressed (depressive) or elevated (manic) mood. Peculiar motor-volitional disorders - the patient may be in a state of complete lethargy, not react to others, not answer questions, refuse to eat, etc. Loss of feeling.