What is schizophrenia?

       Schizophrenia is a group of psychiatric disorders of unknown etiology, mostly starting in young adults, and may have a slow or acute onset and a long course, with some patients remaining cured or largely cured with systematic treatment, and some patients having a chronic tendency and the possibility of social withdrawal. The patient’s intelligence is not affected, but thinking, emotion, behavior and other aspects can be impaired.  The cause of the disease is unknown and may be related to genetics, personality traits, and stress caused by various events encountered in life.  There are two main categories of manifestations: 1, the sound of talking in the ears, while others can not hear; suspicion, suspicion of people talking, suspicion of persecution, being followed, being watched, suspicion that the spouse has an outside mind, being controlled and influenced by external forces, etc.; strange thoughts, strange behavior.  2. Laziness, poor or no personal hygiene care, no communication, not going out, not working, lack of affection for people.  Each person’s performance varies, may be one of the two, may be both.  Diagnosis: There is no instrument to diagnose, but mainly relies on history and psychiatric examination (doctor-patient communication) Treatment: Systematic treatment is needed for the whole course of the disease. Medication is the main treatment, and some psychotherapy is helpful during the recovery period. Psychotherapy or counseling alone is not effective. Chinese medicine treatment lacks certain efficacy. Some Chinese medicine preparations are added with western medicine, while it is western medicine that really works. Any method claiming to be a cure is not scientific.  Commonly used drugs are: risperidone, olanzapine, quetiapine, aripiprazole, ziprasidone, amisulpride, fenadine, clozapine, dormantine, sulpiride, etc. Each drug has its own characteristics and is chosen according to the disease and drug characteristics.  The duration of treatment usually takes 3-5 years, and recurrent patients need lifelong medication.