In Europe, patients were more apt to have delusions of poisoning or religious guilt while in Japan the delusions most often related to being slandered. The disease occurs twice as often in unmarried and divorced people as in married or widowed ones, and people with schizophrenia are eight times more likely to be in the lowest socioeconomic groups. These two latter statistics, however, are likely to reflect the alienating effects of this disease rather than any causal relationship or risk factor associated with poverty or a single life. This information is brought to you by Well Connected . You may order this complete guide or choose to subscribe to the complete library covering over 90 health and mental health problems.
Schizophrenia usually appears for the first time in late adolescence or early adulthood.
Paranoid schizophrenia, in particular, may be more common in men. Men tend to develop schizophrenia between the ages of 15 and 24. The onset in women is usually slightly later, between 25 and 34, and the symptoms tend to be less severe. Although the risk of schizophrenia declines with age, there is a lesser peak incidence at around 45 years and another, mostly in women, in the mid-60s. Late-onset schizophrenia that develops in the 40s is most likely to be the paranoid subtype with fewer negative symptoms or learning impairment.