Schizophrenia symptoms set in early but often ignored

Doctors say that if the disease is detected early, 40% patients can be cured completely.

The number of schizophrenia cases being reported in the 

state is on the rise. But lack of awareness, the stigma 

associated with the condition and other such factors are 

preventing families from identifying it early in life. In fact, 

experts say that symptoms of the disease can be seen in 

early adolescence and teenage but most of the times, 

families miss or deliberately ignore these symptoms due to 

their reluctance to accept the fact that there is a problem.    

“Of the 280 new patients that I have here, 60% are cases of 

schizophrenia. Most of them are in the age group of 30 to 45 

years. It is quite probable that they may have exhibited 

symptoms in their teenage years itself which were ignored 

due to lack of awareness,” said a Dr.

According to him, 40% of schizophrenia cases can be treated 

completely if detected early. In the rest, 50% of time it is 

possible to control it with medicines.

But often, by the time patients come to us it is too late. 

Moreover, you should remember that schizophrenia is a 

disorder, not a disease. In hardly 10% of the cases does it so 

happen that patients come to us the moment they detect any 

symptoms,” said a Dr. He said that families take quite some 

time to accept that their loved one is a patient of 

schizophrenia. 

It is a biological, psychological and social disorder caused by 

neuro-chemical imbalance in the brain. “In many cases the 

patients exhibit odd behaviour very early in their teens 

including being in their own thoughts, a belief that they have 

a sixth sense, having delusions and hallucinations. But 

families often dismiss such behaviour as part of the child’s 

personality instead of considering the possibility of these 

being symptoms of schizophrenia,” said a Dr.   

Another psychiatrist,  said that many of the symptoms 

associated with the disease when exhibited by patients in 

their teens are termed as ‘good behaviour’ by parents and 

families.   

“When a teenager stays alone, doesn't have many friends 

and lives in his own world, parents believe that she/he is 

being a good child. The cases that get detected early are 

often the ones in which the patients turn aggressive,” said a 

Dr.

Those cases that don’t show aggressive symptoms are 

invariably detected late and the response to medication too is 

often sluggish. He jokes that as in the Parliament, so in 

schizophrenia it is aggressive behaviour that first draws 

attention to the fact that something is wrong.