What Is Schizophrenia? Understanding the Person Behind the Diagnosis
Schizophrenia is a complex mental health condition that can affect perception, thought, emotion, motivation and a personโs sense of reality. Symptoms may include hearing voices, unusual or strongly held beliefs, disorganised thinking, social withdrawal and reduced motivation. Schizophrenia is not a โsplit personality,โ and most people with the diagnosis are not violent. Treatment commonly combines antipsychotic medication, psychological therapy, family support and practical help with daily life. Recovery is possible, although it may look different for each person. A diagnosis describes a pattern of difficulty; it does not erase the person experiencing it.
Schizophrenia can alter how the world is perceived without erasing the person living within it.
Schizophrenia is one of those words that can alter how a person is seen before they have said anything about themselves.
The diagnosis is often associated with danger, unpredictability, institutional care or the idea that someone has become permanently detached from ordinary human life. It is also frequently confused with having a โsplit personality.โ These ideas are largely wrong.
Schizophrenia is a complex mental health condition that can affect perception, thought, emotion, motivation and a personโs relationship with reality. It can involve hearing voices, holding beliefs that other people do not share, struggling to organise thoughts, withdrawing from relationships or finding that ordinary tasks require enormous effort.
But a person does not disappear when schizophrenia appears.
They may still care about the same people, carry the same history, notice how others respond to them and feel the humiliation of being treated as a diagnosis rather than a human being.
The symptoms matter and so does the person experiencing them.
What is schizophrenia?
Schizophrenia is a long-term mental health condition associated with episodes of psychosis and other changes in thinking, emotion and functioning.
Psychosis describes a state in which a person may have difficulty distinguishing their own perceptions, beliefs or interpretations from the reality shared by other people. Schizophrenia is one condition in which psychosis can occur, but psychosis can also appear in bipolar disorder, severe depression, substance-related conditions and some physical illnesses. (nhs.uk)
A diagnosis of schizophrenia does not mean that someone is continuously psychotic.
Some people experience distinct episodes followed by long periods of relative stability. Others live with persistent symptoms that vary in intensity. The effect on daily life also differs considerably from one person to another.
There is no single blood test, scan or questionnaire that establishes the diagnosis. It is made through specialist assessment of the personโs experiences, history, functioning and other possible explanations. (nhs.uk)
What can schizophrenia feel like from the inside?
Clinical descriptions often divide schizophrenia into hallucinations, delusions, disorganised thinking and negative symptoms.
These terms are useful, but they do not fully convey the experience.
From within, the world may begin to feel altered.
Ordinary events can seem unusually significant. A strangerโs glance may feel deliberate. A television programme may appear to contain a message intended specifically for the viewer. Thoughts may no longer feel private. Sounds can become sharper, patterns more noticeable and coincidences too meaningful to dismiss.
The person may feel watched, tested, controlled, pursued or communicated with.
They may hear a voice as clearly as they hear another person speaking. They may experience thoughts as being inserted, removed or broadcast. Some describe feeling that their actions are being influenced by an external force. These experiences are recognised features of schizophrenia and related psychotic conditions. (World Health Organization)
To somebody outside the experience, the explanation may seem impossible. To the person living through it, the fear is real.
Hallucinations and hearing voices
A hallucination is a sensory experience without a corresponding external source that other people can perceive.
It can involve hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting or feeling something. Auditory hallucinationsโparticularly hearing voicesโare commonly associated with schizophrenia. (nhs.uk)
Voices vary greatly.
They may:
Criticise or insult;
Comment on what the person is doing;
Speak to one another;
Issue commands;
Warn of danger;
Offer reassurance or companionship;
Sound familiar or completely unknown.
Some people experience voices as coming from inside their mind. Others hear them as though someone is speaking nearby, behind them or from elsewhere in the environment. (www.rcpsych.ac.uk)
Hearing a voice does not automatically establish a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Voice-hearing can also occur in trauma-related conditions, severe mood disorders, dissociative experiences, neurological illness, bereavement and other circumstances.
The important questions include what the person hears, how they understand it, how much distress it causes and whether the voice is directing them to harm themselves or somebody else.
Delusions and altered meaning
A delusion is a strongly held belief that remains fixed despite evidence that other people regard as compelling.
These beliefs must be understood within the personโs cultural and religious context. A belief is not delusional merely because it is unusual or unfamiliar to the clinician.
Delusions may involve the belief that:
Somebody is monitoring or persecuting the person;
Messages are being sent through television, music or social media;
Thoughts can be read, inserted or removed;
The body has been changed or contaminated;
The person has a unique mission, identity or power;
Unrelated events are specifically connected to them.
It is easy to treat these beliefs as intellectual errors that should be corrected through argument.
That usually misses the experience.
A persecutory belief may be accompanied by overwhelming fear. A belief in special powers may coexist with shame, helplessness or a life that has suddenly lost structure. An elaborate explanation may give temporary order to sensations and coincidences that have become impossible to organise.
This does not mean that every psychotic belief is secretly symbolic or that a therapist should interpret it into submission.
It means the belief has an emotional context.
Understanding that context is different from agreeing that the belief is factually true.
How should someone respond to a delusional belief?
There are two unhelpful extremes.
The first is direct confrontation:
That is ridiculous. None of this is happening.
The second is collusion:
Yes, you are definitely being watched.
One humiliates the person. The other may intensify fear and reinforce an unsafe understanding of events.
A more grounded response might be:
I do not experience the situation in the same way, but I can see how frightening it feels to you.
This keeps contact with both realities.
The therapist or supporter does not need to endorse the belief in order to recognise the personโs distress. Nor do they need to win an argument before offering safety, interest and respect.
This stance is related to mentalisation: remaining curious about another personโs thoughts, feelings and intentions without treating our own interpretation as unquestionable fact.
Disorganised thinking and speech
Schizophrenia can affect the mindโs ability to organise thoughts and communicate them coherently.
A person may:
Move rapidly between loosely connected subjects;
Lose the thread of what they were saying;
Answer a different question from the one asked;
Use words in unusual ways;
Struggle to translate internal experience into ordinary language;
Speak very little despite appearing preoccupied.
From the outside, this can look evasive, confusing or nonsensical.
From the inside, the person may be trying to communicate while too many associations, meanings or internal stimuli compete for attention.
The task is not necessarily to demand a clearer explanation.
Sometimes the first task is to slow the interaction down.
Short questions, ordinary language, reduced emotional pressure and a stable pace can make thought more possible.
What are positive and negative symptoms?
Clinicians often describe schizophrenia using the terms positive symptoms and negative symptoms.
These words do not mean good and bad.
Positive symptoms refer to experiences added to usual functioning, such as:
Hallucinations;
Delusions;
Thought disorder;
Unusual or disorganised behaviour.
Negative symptoms refer to capacities that have become reduced, such as:
Motivation;
Emotional expression;
Speech;
Pleasure;
Social interest;
Initiation of everyday activities.
The NHS notes that people may lose interest in ordinary activities, withdraw socially, neglect their own needs or feel disconnected from emotion. (nhs.uk)
Negative symptoms can be less visible than acute psychosis but profoundly disabling.
Someone may want a fuller life while being unable to generate the internal movement required to begin it.
Withdrawal is not necessarily indifference
A person who stops contacting friends, caring for their appearance or participating in ordinary life may be described as lazy or uncaring.
Several different processes may be present.
The person may be:
Frightened of other people;
Distracted by voices;
Exhausted after an acute episode;
Depressed;
Emotionally blunted;
Struggling with medication side effects;
Unable to plan and initiate activity;
Ashamed of how others now see them.
What looks like an absence of feeling may sometimes be an absence of accessible expression.
What looks like a lack of interest may be a collapse in the ability to act.
This distinction matters. Criticism rarely restores a capacity that has become unavailable.
Is schizophrenia a split personality?
No.
Schizophrenia is not the same as dissociative identity disorder, previously called multiple personality disorder.
Dissociative identity disorder involves disruptions in identity, memory and continuity of experience, rather than the psychosis and changes in thought or perception associated with schizophrenia.
The confusion probably comes from the wordโs historical roots, but the conditions involve different difficulties. Dissociative identity disorder centres on disruption in identity and autobiographical continuity. Schizophrenia is primarily associated with psychosis, altered perception, unusual beliefs and disturbances in thought and functioning. (www.rcpsych.ac.uk)
A person with schizophrenia does not contain several separate personalities.
They remain one person, even when their relationship with thought, perception and reality has become profoundly altered.
Are people with schizophrenia dangerous?
Most people with schizophrenia are not violent.
The Royal College of Psychiatrists states that the majority never commit violent acts and are more likely to experience violence themselves than to perpetrate it. Risk can increase in some circumstances, particularly where there is untreated acute illness, substance misuse or other established risk factors, but the diagnosis alone does not make somebody dangerous. (www.rcpsych.ac.uk)
The stereotype has consequences.
It encourages fear, social exclusion and dehumanising media coverage. It may also make people less willing to seek treatment or tell others about their experiences.
A diagnosis should never replace an individual assessment of risk.
Nor should it be used as a polite clinical word for someone society has decided to fear.
What causes schizophrenia?
There is no single cause of schizophrenia.
Current understanding points towards an interaction between biological vulnerability and environmental experience. Relevant factors may include genetics, brain development, pregnancy or birth complications, childhood adversity, social stress, isolation and the use of some drugs.
A person may have a vulnerability without ever developing schizophrenia. Stress, sleep disruption, substance use or major life events may contribute to the onset or recurrence of symptoms in some people. (nhs.uk)
No single factor explains every case.
Schizophrenia is not caused by weak character, insufficient willpower or one badly handled emotion.
Nor should families be automatically blamed.
Relationships and environments may affect stress, recovery and relapse, but that is different from declaring that one person caused the condition.
How is schizophrenia diagnosed?
Diagnosis should follow a detailed assessment by a psychiatrist or another appropriately trained mental health professional.
The assessment may consider:
Hallucinations and unusual beliefs;
Thought and speech;
Changes in motivation and functioning;
Mood symptoms;
Personal and family history;
Trauma and dissociation;
Alcohol and drug use;
Prescribed medication;
Physical and neurological health;
The duration and course of the experiences.
Clinicians must also consider other explanations, including bipolar disorder, severe depression with psychotic symptoms, substance-induced psychosis and physical illness. (nhs.uk)
A single unusual belief or brief hallucinatory experience does not establish schizophrenia.
The wider pattern matters.
So does what was happening in the personโs life when the experience began.
The diagnosis can explain and injure
For some people, receiving a diagnosis provides relief.
There is finally a name for experiences that felt frightening and incomprehensible. Treatment becomes available. Family members may begin to understand that the person is unwell rather than deliberately behaving strangely.
For others, the diagnosis feels like a sentence.
They may fear losing work, relationships, autonomy or credibility. From that point onwards, ordinary anger may be viewed as illness. Disagreement may be interpreted as lack of insight. Understandable fear may be treated as another symptom.
A diagnosis can guide treatment.
It can also become a lens through which every part of a person is misread.
Good care has to hold both possibilities.
What treatment is used for schizophrenia?
Treatment is usually provided through an early intervention service or community mental health team and may involve psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses, occupational therapists, social workers and other professionals.
NICE recommends antipsychotic medication together with psychological interventionsโparticularly cognitive behavioural therapy for psychosis and family interventionโfor first episodes and later acute episodes. Support may also include help with employment, education, housing, physical health and daily functioning. (Nice)
Treatment should be individually planned.
A person may need substantial support during an acute episode and much less when stable. Others require longer-term coordinated care.
Early treatment matters. NICE recommends rapid assessment by an early intervention in psychosis service when somebody presents with a first episode or possible first presentation of psychosis. (Nice)
What do antipsychotic medications do?
Antipsychotic medication can reduce psychotic symptoms such as hallucinations, delusions and severe thought disturbance.
Different medications affect people differently. Benefits can take time to emerge, and side effects may include weight gain, sedation, restlessness, movement difficulties, hormonal effects and changes in blood glucose or cholesterol.
Medication decisions should therefore involve the person as much as possible, including discussion of expected benefits, previous responses and which side effects feel tolerable. Physical health should be monitored before and during treatment. (Nice)
Medication should not be described as either a miracle or a moral duty.
It can be highly valuable. It can also involve difficult trade-offs.
A person who is reluctant to take medication may be responding to unpleasant previous experiences rather than simply โlacking insight.โ That concern needs serious discussion with the prescribing team, not abrupt withdrawal or private experimentation.
How can psychological therapy help?
Psychological therapy does not ask someone to be argued out of schizophrenia.
It may help the person:
Understand patterns preceding an episode;
Reduce distress associated with voices or unusual beliefs;
Consider alternative explanations without humiliation;
Recognise changes in sleep, stress and functioning;
Work with anxiety, grief, shame and isolation;
Rebuild relationships and daily structure;
Process the impact of diagnosis and hospital treatment;
Develop a plan for recognising possible relapse.
NICE recommends individual CBT for psychosis and family intervention alongside medical care. Talking therapies are generally most effective as part of a broader treatment plan rather than as a substitute for psychiatric assessment or medication during acute psychosis. (Nice)
A psychodynamic understanding may also be interested in the emotional and relational world around the symptoms.
What was happening when the person began to feel watched?
What does the voice say?
When does it become louder?
What happens to trust when the person feels exposed or controlled?
These questions can be useful, but they must be approached without assuming that every symptom is a disguised metaphor waiting for a clever interpretation.
Sometimes the mind needs less intensity, not more.
Depth must be matched to capacity
In depth-oriented therapy, there can be a temptation to pursue the emotion underneath the symptom.
With schizophrenia and psychosis, pace matters.
Strong emotional pressure, confrontation or rapid interpretation may increase anxiety, confusion and loss of reflective capacity. The therapist may need to prioritise orientation, structure, regulation and reality-based connection over intensive emotional mobilisation.
The immediate task might be:
helping the person remain present;
clarifying what is happening now;
distinguishing a feeling from a perception;
reducing arousal;
restoring ordinary sequence and context;
maintaining contact without intrusion.
This is not superficial therapy.
It is treatment matched to the personโs present capacity.
Depth is not measured by how forcefully a therapist opens something. It is measured by whether the person can remain there long enough to make use of it.
The Understanding Emotional Capacity guide explores why emotional experience may become overwhelming or disorganising, and why therapy sometimes needs to build capacity before pursuing greater emotional depth.
The therapeutic relationship
Schizophrenia can profoundly affect trust.
A person who feels watched, controlled, influenced or deceived may also become suspicious of the therapist. Questions can feel like interrogation. Note-taking may feel ominous. Silence may acquire threatening meaning. A change in appointment time may appear deliberate.
The therapist needs to be clear, predictable and honest.
This includes explaining:
what the therapy is for;
what information is recorded;
the limits of confidentiality;
how risk is handled;
whether other professionals are involved;
what the therapist does and does not believe is happening.
Consistency matters, but so does repair.
The person may have experienced hospital admission, compulsory treatment, social exclusion or repeated conversations in which other people spoke about them as though they were absent.
Therapy should not recreate that disappearance.
Supporting someone without taking over
Family members and partners may feel caught between fear, frustration and the wish to help.
It can be useful to:
speak calmly and use clear language;
acknowledge distress without confirming frightening beliefs as fact;
avoid ridicule or prolonged argument;
encourage contact with the personโs mental health team;
notice changes in sleep, withdrawal, self-care or behaviour;
agree in advance what should happen if the person becomes unwell;
retain ordinary human contact rather than making every conversation about symptoms.
Family support should not mean unlimited responsibility.
NICE recommends offering family intervention and carer-focused support because the condition affects the wider relational system as well as the diagnosed person. (Nice)
Can people recover from schizophrenia?
Yes.
Recovery differs between people. Some experience a single episode and substantial long-term recovery. Others have recurring episodes or continue to live with some symptoms while building relationships, work, independence and a meaningful life.
The NHS states that many people recover, although relapses can occur. The Royal College of Psychiatrists emphasises that recovery may mean returning to valued activities, understanding the condition, recognising early warning signs and knowing what support is neededโnot necessarily the complete absence of every symptom. (nhs.uk)
Recovery can include:
fewer or less distressing voices;
greater uncertainty about persecutory beliefs;
improved sleep and self-care;
returning to work or education;
rebuilding trust;
recognising early signs of relapse;
reducing substance use;
developing a life that is larger than treatment.
A person may still hear voices and recover.
They may still need medication and recover.
They may remain vulnerable to relapse and recover.
Recovery is not proved by becoming indistinguishable from someone who was never ill.
Finding appropriate support
A first or rapidly worsening episode of psychosis requires prompt specialist assessment.
Someone experiencing new hallucinations, strong persecutory beliefs, severe confusion or a marked decline in functioning should contact their GP or existing mental health team. Early intervention services are specifically designed to assess and support people experiencing a first episode of psychosis. (nhs.uk)
Urgent help is needed when the person:
may harm themselves or somebody else;
is responding to dangerous commands;
cannot meet basic needs;
is severely confused or distressed;
has become rapidly more unwell;
cannot remain safe outside hospital.
In England, urgent mental health help is available through NHS 111 online or by calling 111 and selecting the mental health option. If somebody is in immediate danger, call 999 or go to A&E. (nhs.uk)
I offer online psychodynamic and ISTDP-informed psychotherapy for adults. Where somebody has a diagnosis of schizophrenia, suitability for private therapy would depend on current stability, risk, reflective capacity and the wider treatment network already in place.
I would not offer private psychotherapy as the sole treatment for acute psychosis or as a replacement for psychiatric and community mental health care.
Schizophrenia can alter how a person encounters the world. It does not make them less human.
Behind the voices, unusual beliefs, withdrawal and diagnosis is still someone trying to understand what is happening, remain connected and build a life that belongs to them.
The Person Behind series
This article is part of The Person Behind, a series offering calm introductions to complex and frequently misunderstood mental health diagnoses.
The series looks beyond symptoms and stereotypes at the person experiencing them.
What Is Borderline Personality Disorder? Understanding the Person Behind the Diagnosis
An introduction to emotional intensity, fear of abandonment, identity, relationships and the ways therapy may help.
What Is Dissociative Identity Disorder? Understanding the Person Behind the Parts
A careful look at dissociation, memory, identity states, trauma and the development of greater safety and continuity.
What Is Schizophrenia? Understanding the Person Behind the Diagnosisโ โ
An exploration of altered perception, voices, unusual beliefs, motivation, treatment, recovery and stigma.
Related reading from Therapy with Rick
These pages explore emotional and reflective processes that may be relevant to understanding distress, altered meaning and the need to match therapeutic depth to a personโs present capacity. They are not substitutes for specialist psychiatric assessment or treatment.
Mentalisation: Understanding Yourself and Others More Clearly
An introduction to the ability to understand thoughts, feelings and intentions while retaining curiosity about our own interpretations and those of other people.
Understanding Emotional Capacity
A guide to how much emotional experience a person can remain connected to without becoming overwhelmed, shutting down or losing the ability to reflect.
State vs Symbol: Why Some Emotional Experiences Are Hard to Put Into Words
An exploration of how immediate bodily and emotional states may appear before they can be represented clearly in language and thought.
Mentalisation and Emotional Fragility: Why Reflection Can Collapse Under Stress
A closer look at how emotional pressure can reduce reflective capacity and leave experience feeling confusing, urgent or difficult to organise.
Further clinical reflection
Mentalisation and Fragility: Reflections from a Workshop
A therapist-focused reflection on stabilisation, shared attention and the importance of restoring the capacity to think before pursuing intensive emotional work.
Explore more in reflections
mediaโ โdepthโ โanxietyโ โemotionโ โbetterhelpโ โreflectionsโ โquizzesFrequently Asked Questions About Schizophrenia
-
Schizrenia is a complex mental health condition that can affect perception, thought, emotion, motivation and a personโs relationship with reality. It may involve hallucinations, delusions, disorganised thinking, social withdrawal and difficulty beginning or sustaining everyday activities.
A diagnosis of schizophrenia does not mean that someone is continuously psychotic or has lost their personality. Experiences and levels of functioning vary considerably between individuals.
-
Early signs can include increasing withdrawal, disrupted sleep, difficulty concentrating, reduced motivation, suspiciousness, deterioration in work or study, neglect of self-care and unusual changes in behaviour or communication.
These signs are not specific to schizophrenia and can occur in depression, anxiety, trauma, substance use and other conditions. New or worsening symptoms should be assessed by an appropriately qualified mental health professional.
-
Schizophrenia can make the world feel altered, unusually significant or difficult to interpret. A person may hear voices, feel watched, believe that ordinary events contain personal messages or experience thoughts as no longer private or fully under their control.
They may also feel emotionally disconnected, exhausted, frightened or unable to organise thoughts and actions. The experience differs considerably from person to person.
-
Psychosis describes a state in which someone has difficulty distinguishing their perceptions, beliefs or interpretations from the reality shared by other people. It may involve hallucinations, delusions or severe disturbances in thought.
Schizophrenia is one condition in which psychosis can occur. Psychosis can also appear in bipolar disorder, severe depression, substance-related conditions and some physical or neurological illnesses.
-
No. Schizophrenia is not a split personality and is not the same as dissociative identity disorder.
Schizophrenia primarily involves changes in perception, thought, beliefs, motivation and functioning. Dissociative identity disorder centres on disruption in identity, memory and continuity of experience.
-
Hallucinations are sensory experiences that occur without an external source that other people can perceive. They may involve hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting or feeling something.
Hearing voices is particularly associated with schizophrenia. Voices may criticise, comment, warn, reassure or issue commands. Hearing voices does not automatically mean that someone has schizophrenia, as voice-hearing can occur in several other conditions.
-
Delusions are strongly held beliefs that remain fixed despite evidence that other people find convincing. They may involve feeling watched, persecuted or controlled, believing that thoughts are being read or broadcast, or experiencing ordinary events as personally significant.
A belief must be considered within the personโs cultural and religious context. An unusual belief is not automatically a delusion.
-
Avoid ridicule, aggressive confrontation or confirming the belief as fact.
A more helpful response acknowledges the personโs distress while remaining grounded:
I do not experience the situation in the same way, but I can see that it feels frightening to you.
Encourage the person to contact their mental health team or seek urgent assessment if they are becoming increasingly distressed, confused or unsafe.
-
Most people with schizophrenia are not violent. They are often more likely to experience violence, exploitation and social exclusion than to harm somebody else.
Risk can increase in particular circumstances, including untreated acute psychosis, substance misuse, severe distress or a history of violence. Risk should be assessed individually rather than assumed from the diagnosis.
-
There is no single cause of schizophrenia. It is generally understood to develop through an interaction between biological vulnerability and environmental experience.
Relevant factors may include genetics, brain development, childhood adversity, social stress, isolation, sleep disruption, pregnancy or birth complications and the use of some drugs. No one factor explains every case.
-
Trauma may increase vulnerability to psychotic experiences, but it does not provide a complete explanation for schizophrenia.
Many people who experience trauma do not develop schizophrenia, and not everyone diagnosed with schizophrenia reports a traumatic history. Assessment should consider trauma alongside biological, psychological, social and substance-related factors.
-
No. Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are separate diagnoses, although both can involve psychosis.
Bipolar disorder primarily involves distinct episodes of depression and mania or hypomania. In schizophrenia, psychotic symptoms and changes in thought, motivation or functioning are more central. Some people experience features of both, which requires careful specialist assessment.
-
Yes. Treatment commonly combines antipsychotic medication, psychological therapy, family intervention and practical support with housing, work, education, physical health and daily functioning.
The appropriate treatment depends on the personโs symptoms, level of risk, previous response to treatment and personal preferences. Acute psychosis usually requires specialist psychiatric involvement.
-
Antipsychotic medication is commonly recommended, particularly during acute psychosis, because it can reduce hallucinations, delusions and severe thought disturbance.
Medication decisions should involve discussion of benefits, side effects and previous experiences. Psychological therapy can be valuable, but it should not usually replace psychiatric assessment or indicated medical treatment during an acute episode.
-
Yes. Some people experience one episode followed by substantial recovery. Others have recurring episodes or continue to experience some symptoms while building relationships, independence, work and a meaningful life.
Recovery does not always mean the complete absence of symptoms. It may mean reduced distress, improved functioning, recognising early warning signs and developing a life that is larger than the diagnosis.
-
Yes. Many people with schizophrenia live independently, work, study, maintain relationships and manage their own treatment.
The level of support required varies. Some people need temporary or ongoing help with medication, finances, housing, daily routines or recognising relapse. Independence should be supported according to the individualโs actual needs rather than assumptions about the diagnosis.
Written by Rick Cox, MBACP (Accred)
Psychodynamic Psychotherapist, UK & Online
Further reading
For reliable information about schizophrenia, psychosis, treatment and recovery:
A clear UK overview of symptoms, diagnosis, causes, treatment, recovery and living with schizophrenia.
NICE: Psychosis and schizophrenia in adults, information for the public
Official guidance explaining assessment, early-intervention services, antipsychotic medication, cognitive behavioural therapy for psychosis and family intervention.
Royal College of Psychiatrists: Schizophrenia
A detailed public resource covering symptoms, diagnosis, possible causes, treatment, recovery and information for families and friends.
Mind: Understanding schizophrenia
Accessible information addressing symptoms, common myths, stigma, diagnosis and the varied experiences of people given the diagnosis.