The remaining incidence studies were conducted in Caribbean countries not plainly representative of developing countries. The level of socioeconomic development in the three Caribbean countries is relatively high for the developing world.

Based…

Geographical variation in incidence, course and outcome of schizophrenia: a comparison of developing and developed countries

Schizophrenia was not identified as a discrete illness until the dawn of…

There is an urgent need for strategic research designed to generate and rigorously test candidate nongenetic, risk-modifying factors for schizophrenia. A framework for the primary prevention of schizophrenia…

The Copenhagen High Risk Cohort (Schulsinger et al., 1987) reported that high-risk individuals (offspring of mothers with schizophrenia) who had had periods of institutionalization were more likely to develop schizophrenia…

In order to develop a framework for primary prevention, it is important to understand terminology surrounding risk factors and causes (Susser, 1991; Kraemer et al., 1997). A risk factor can be anything…

Introduction
In arguing for increased research funding, attention is often drawn to the finding that schizophrenia accounts for 2.3% of the total burden of disease (disability adjusted life years, DALYs) in established market…

Significant and widespread cognitive problems appear to exist in schizophrenia in its earliest phase, making it very hard for people with the disorder to work, study or be…

Research ethics is concerned with the moral principles and rules that govern the conduct of scientific study involving human subjects. Clinical research is essential to further our understanding of the causes…

Client-centered care, also termed patient-centered care and person-centered care, is now considered a mainstay of acceptable health care, both in mental health care and in physical health care (Stewart et al.,…

Health problems and health care frequently raise ethical issues of various types. The discipline that addresses such ethical issues is currently called bioethics, a field of practice, research, and education that influences public policymaking and legislature,…

The neurodevelopmental model of schizophrenia provides a framework for understanding how OCs interact with the developing brain to increase the likelihood of schizophrenia in late adolescence and early adulthood. In normal development,…

OCs have been linked to the etiology of schizophrenia since the 1960s when Lane and Albee (1966) first observed that birthweights of 52 patients with schizophrenia were lower than…

An array of models has been proposed to explain how OCs contribute to the causes of schizophrenia. We cover the most prominent models in schizophrenia research and discuss…

A few specific pregnancy and perinatal factors were associated with the subsequent development of psychotic disorder, particularly schizophrenia, in early adult life. The association of small size for gestational age…

Schizophrenia, which is considered the most severe psychiatric disorder, is characterized by many impairments, such as psychosis and apathy, cognitive deficits and comorbid symptoms, as well as disrupted functioning and behavioral problems. Diagnostic…

The current most widely accepted approach for diagnostic interviewing in psychiatric assessment is the use of structured interviews. The main advantage of structured interviews is that they provide a standardized approach for gathering…

Psychiatric diagnosis involves use of generic clinical assessment skills, such as combining open-ended and close-ended questions, as well as specialized skills needed to address challenges associated with psychiatric impairments. In this section we…

Measuring treatment quality is important if treatment professionals wish to improve it. If you don’t know if something is broken, how will you know that it needs to…

By reading this section and educating yourself about schizophrenia, you have taken the first step to help eliminate misperceptions about this devastating illness. Now you can help stop perpetuating the cycle of misinformation…

Unfortunately,  many people know very little about schizophrenia and other forms of mental illness. Society has several misconceptions about psychiatric disorders in general, and schizophrenia in particular. The media often perpetuate myths…

Three months after his hospitalization,  Kevin returned home to live with his parents. It has been a difficult adjustment, but he feels like he is getting better every day. Kevin was in the…

Although early schizophrenia researchers such as Bleuler and Kraepelin insisted that schizophrenia is, at its core, a disease caused by biological factors, many others believed that schizophrenia was caused by the family. Today,…

When scientists study how the brains of people with mental illness are different, they are commonly interested in two issues: brain structure and function. Researchers can study structure by comparing the brain anatomy in…

In the past, researchers could only examine the brain after a patient died. Now, there is technology that allows researchers to examine the brains of living people. New techniques, including magnetic resonance imaging…