Schizophrenia, a misunderstood disorder

Our brains are a very important part of our lives, they are very complex organs that can make a variety of functions since regulating the processes of our bodies until allowing us to think. But, how all our body, this is not a perfect organ. Currently, there's a lot of mental diseases and disorders, caused by chemical alterations in it that are not supposed to be. Today I'm going to talk about one of the most known disorders and at the same time, most misunderstood. Schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia is a chronic brain disorder characterized by abnormal behaviour, strange speech, and a decreased ability to understand reality. The causes are not fully known yet. But is demonstrated that exist a genetic factor that causes the disorder, although is not the only one that causes it, in the majority of patients, there's a lot of possible external factors that may unleash it, some are the abuse of drugs like cocaine or psychedelics, or vital stressful situations that mark the life of that person.

In this disorder, there's a lot of symptoms that a person may have. The most important are delirium, that consists of false beliefs that the person firmly hold based on some details of reality that misinterprets, hallucinations, where the person see, hear or feel things that he lives how real, but they are not, and negative alterations in thoughts, affectivity, behaviour and cognition. 

Schizophrenia appears equally in men and women. But is more frequent in men than women, and tends to appear later in women in a milder way than men. Generally, it appears in the teenage or first years of adultivity, but it may start later in life.

The worldwide prevalence of this disorder is around 1% of the population with few variations between countries. But the prevalence of life in developing countries. 

Although it is a complex disorder, it has treatment. Antipsychotic medications are the most effective treatment for schizophrenia. They change the balance of chemicals in the brain and can help control symptoms. The problem is that schizophrenia is a chronic disease and most people who suffer it need to be on antipsychotic medication for life.

To end this blog, I'm gonna tell you why I chose this disorder. I think that is important to know about this kind of disorders, to break the stigmatization. I think that if we know better this disease, we can improve the lives of humanity.

Picture made by a patient with Schizophrenia