TV REVIEW : ‘Into Madness’: Painful Look at Schizophrenia

“Into Madness,” an “America Undercover” segment airing tonight at 9:30 on HBO cable, is a simple story with an emotional wallop, particularly for parents of young children.

The story: portraits of three schizophrenics and their families. The wallop: the fear that this agonizing illness that strikes without warning could happen to your child.

Producers Alan and Susan Raymond wisely concentrate on the people, with narrator Susan explaining facts about the disease as the program unfolds. The many theories about cause and treatment are mentioned but not debated or expounded on by the usual panel of experts.

Some researchers may object to the statement that schizophrenia “is an incurable brain disease”--there are a few psychiatrists who say it is curable, others who would argue that it is not a brain disease--but the issue here is the “people story” at the heart of “Into Madness,” the story of three families coping with a devastating problem.

All of the victims have been ill for more than 10 years. All of them hear voices, suffer from disorientation, and have spent time in hospitals. There is Bob, a 35-year-old former Latin scholar whose father describes him as “the All-American boy.” He has been ill for 17 years. His parents didn’t even know what schizophrenia was when he became ill. Bob is one of the 40% of schizophrenics who don’t respond to drugs. Reluctantly, his parents commit him to a small group home--a “wasted life,” his mother says in a rare bitter moment, “his and ours.”

There is Missy, at 27 a veteran of 16 hospitals. Her mother remembers her as “a beautiful, happy child.” Missy now lives on a halfway house/farm in Northern California. She is painfully aware of “the chemical imbalance” in her head and poignantly asks, “How did this happen to me?”

Finally, there is Steven, 28, one of the minority of schizophrenics given to violent outbursts. He lives in a psychiatric hospital in New York. “Into Madness” shows him playing catch with his father on a weekend pass, a painful imitation of the young, vibrant child shown in earlier home movies.

Three wonderful youngsters with a life sentence. “Into Madness” is a painful, disturbing program well worth a look.