In general during an acute schizophrenic episode, a patient is unable to separate real from unreal experiences. In paranoid schizophrenia , patients experience hallucinations and delusions. Patients with disorganised schizophrenia , on the other hand, are difficult to understand - their speech can become incomprehensible and their behaviour is often inappropriate or bizarre. Schizophrenia is manageable with treatment, but the illness can severely disrupt work and social life and often affects patients for the rest of their lives. Usually the illness develops in late adolescence, when people reach their early twenties, but schizophrenia can develop in later life, and children as young as nine have suffered from the condition.
Schizophrenia is inheritable to some degree.
In many cases people with schizophrenia have a brother, sister or parent with the condition as well. Family members also often have to help out financially and make sure that medicine is taken. Schizophrenia reveals itself gradually. At first, the symptoms may not be noticed or may be confused with those of other conditions. For example, people with schizophrenia may feel tense, be unable to concentrate or have trouble sleeping.