Textbook of Psychiatry CHAPTER 12 . SCHIZOPHRENIA 12 . 7 SCHIZOPHRENIA : CLINICAL FEATURES

The major public health problem faced by psychiatry is the group of disorders that constitutes the diagnostic category of schizophrenia. These disorders affect approximately 1 percent of the population and most commonly have their onset in early adult life. More importantly, they usually leave the patient with varying degrees of cognitive, affective, and psychosocial impairment. This combination of impairments prevents most patients from achieving their full potential. In all known societies, adulthood is defined in terms of work and procreation. Individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia are frequently unable to perform the complex work tasks seen in the industrialized nations. The more severely impaired are not even able to perform the simpler work tasks associated with developing nations. Interpersonal relationships are frequently impaired enough to prevent courtship and subsequent marriage and procreation. The result is that people with these disorders are denied the social and personal benefits of adulthood to a considerable degree.