Schizophrenia is a severe and disabling chronic psychiatric illness that mainly arises in late adolescence or early adulthood, resulting in an altered perception of reality and consequent improper and unpredictable reactions and behaviors that are difficult for people close to the affected person to understand and frame.
Because of its striking manifestations and the inability to interact conventionally with the person suffering from it, schizophrenia has been considered the quintessential psychiatric illness for centuries and associated with a very strong stigma.
While it remains a difficult psychiatric disorder to manage, thanks to improved pharmacological and rehabilitative interventions, the approach to patients and treatment outcomes are gradually changing in recent years.
