Schizophrenia is the most common major psychiatric disorder, with the prevalence (number of cases in the country at any one time) of 3 per 1,000. The symptoms of schizophrenia can vary, but most people with the condition experience a dramatic disturbance in thoughts and feelings.

The features common to many cases of schizophrenia are:

• delusions (abnormal beliefs not based in reality),
• hallucinations (the sensation of an experience that isn't actually happening),
• disordered thought based on the delusions and hallucinations, and
• abnormal behavior in response to the other three features.

Schizophrenia often starts suddenly and catastrophically (acute schizophrenia), and may go on to produce a chronic (ongoing) illness. Nearly 80% of those who have a first episode will recover, but 70% will have a second episode within 5-7 years.

Two important points:

• Schizophrenia is frequently misunderstood as split personality or multiple personality. However the split in Schizophrenia refers to the discrepancy between thinking and feeling, not personality.
• People with schizophrenia are very rarely dangerous to other people. Most who have the illness are vulnerable and withdrawn and more likely to hurt themselves than others.