Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is not a rare illness. About one out of every one-hundred people in the world meets the DSM- IV criteria for schizophrenia. In the United States, it is estimated that more than two million people have been or will be diagnosed with the disorder at some point in their lifetime. This is larger than the total populations of seventeen states in the United States.

Schizophrenia affects men and women from every race, culture, and religion in just about every corner of the world. It also appears that schizophrenia may have been present throughout history. Some of the earliest known writings describe people with symptoms of a mental illness that sound very similar to the symptoms of schizophrenia.