Schizophrenia F20.00

Schizophrenia – the facts.

Every year 1.5 million people worldwide are diagnosed with schizophrenia. It is a mental illness which has periods called ’psychotic episodes’. During a psychotic episode, a sufferer shows disturbing changes in behaviour. They may seem very cold and unemotional , using few facial expressions, and say strange things in a slow, flat voice. They may lose all interest in life and spend days doing nothing at all, not even washing or eating. These distressing symptoms are shocking for family members who, of course, remember what the sufferer was like before the onset of the illness.