Its specific etiology is unknown and presently there is no cure.
Treatment is available, however, that mitigates the most savage effects of the disease.
Antipsychotic medication is, to date, the most efficacious strategy for managing the symptoms of schizophrenia and preventing relapse, provided it is taken as prescribed. Adherence to medication regimens has always been problematic, however. The majority of the literature that addresses the issues of medication and adherence is quantitative in nature and evaluates either the efficacy of interventions designed to increase adherence or the amount of symptom reduction attributable to medications. There is little research regarding the impact of antipsychotic medications on quality of life issues and none from the perspective of the people with schizophrenia who actually take the medications. The purpose of this descriptive phenomenological study is to illuminate the lived experience of taking medication from the chronic schizophrenic client's perspective.