To many schizophrenia is a grey zone of misunderstanding and misconception, and yet 1 percent of the world's population is afflicted. For Africa, that means between 9 and 10 million people. The disease manifests itself in later life often in the 18 to 21 year age group, affecting the way sufferers feel, act, think, move and speak, affecting their initiative, their working and social lives. Because of the lack of knowledge about schizophrenia, the illness often goes undiagnosed and everyone from sufferer to family to friends to colleagues suffer under society's confusion and misunderstanding. Nobody knows for certain what causes schizophrenia.
Research points to a biochemical imbalance in one of the neurotransmitters, dopamine.
Dopamine imbalances are implicated in many neurological disorders. There also appears to be some evidence that suggests that the disease is hereditary but this does not hold true in all cases. Physical injury to the foetus during pregnancy, or trauma during birth has also been implicated as one of the possible causes of schizophrenia. There are many questions to be answered. Fortunately, research into schizophrenia has been boosted in the last decade with neurochemical and psychopharmacological research, aided by the availability of tools such as neuroimaging.