It is also wrong to think that people will be terribly

It is also wrong to think that people will be terribly affected for the rest of their lives. Most young patients live at home.”Schizophrenia has a very variable outcome,” said Dr Corrigall “It would be wrong to say that everybody gets better. Cognitive behavioural therapy has been shown to be of particular benefit. While some patients can be violent, they are much more likely to harm themselves than other people.The illness is treated with anti-psychotic medication, and patients are also offered psychological help. Chronic sufferers, however, experience repeated episodes with residual impairment, such as diminished social functioning and self-care, which worsens each time.

Some patients have a one-off episode with no residual effects. There are various ideas about things that might be important, possibly inter-uterine factors, exposure to virus, social stress and neuro-developmental problems,” he said.Degrees of severity vary widely. “Genetics is certainly an important contributing factor, but it doesn’t account for everything. Dr Richard Corrigall, consultant adolescent psychiatrist at Guy’s Hospital, London, said that the causes of the illness are still not properly understood. Most have their first psychotic episode between the ages of 15 and 25. Sufferers experience hallucinations, delusions and thought-disorder, which they often find extremely frightening. She didn’t dare to say anything – she didn’t want a fist in the face.Michael managed only four days at college where, hoping to become a translator one day, he had enrolled to study A-level German He was admitted into a psychiatric ward Again.Michael has suspected schizophrenia.

All Michael could see until morning was the knife plunging in again and again.
Then there was the time when he pinned his father down in the lounge during a row about cigarettes.His mother, Mary, 47, recognises his mood swings instantly – as she did on the occasion when Michael was packing his bag for his first day at college. But sometimes his teenage charm abandons him, as it did the time he couldn’t sleep because his head was full of images of a man being repeatedly stabbed. Michael Kidd, an affable 17-year-old, would probably make you laugh if you met him. We know there is a shortage of specialists but that is no excuse,” said Richard Sullivan, head of clinical programmes at Cancer Research UK..