Last reviewed:
Jan 19th 2023
LSW
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that affects how a person behaves, thinks, and sees the world. It can majorly impact a person's daily life, making it difficult to keep relationships. Common symptoms of schizophrenia include disorganized speech, disturbances in thinking, withdrawal from society, erratic behavior, deluded thinking, and seeing, tasting, or hearing things that aren't there.
People with this psychiatric disorder may not identify what is real or hallucinated. Schizophrenia can also interfere with regular activities such as attending meetings and engaging in conversations. Treatment for schizophrenia includes therapy, counseling, lifestyle changes, and medication to reduce symptoms.
In an analysis of 11 studies published in 13 publications covering the continents of Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America, which involved 247 603 patients, schizophrenia was associated with premature death. This means that people with schizophrenia tend to live significantly shorter lives than the general population. The studies concluded that men with schizophrenia lose an average of 15.9 years of life, and women with schizophrenia lose around 13.6 years.
These findings show that, on average, men with schizophrenia have an average life expectancy of 59.9 years and women 67.6 years. The effect that schizophrenia has on potential years of life lost did not seem to change over time. [1]
Extrapolation of health study results from the general population to schizophrenic patients may not be appropriate. From a genetic perspective, schizophrenia may alter disease risk, conferring disadvantages in some areas and advantages in others. In addition, optimal treatment for patients with schizophrenia may require a compromise between mental and physical health.
Despite the significant advances in treatment and medical care, improved understanding of schizophrenia, and advocacy efforts focused on this population, individuals with schizophrenia:
These points underline this mental illness's severity and demonstrate the importance of providing sufferers with the proper support. [4]
Self-management interventions aim at empowering individuals to manage their own health. They should be prioritized along with standard care to improve function, quality of life, and life expectancy. These include:
It is our obligation as a society to do more to protect the health of people with schizophrenia by providing culturally and linguistically competent healthcare services and better public education to promote healthy behaviors among this population. [6]
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