Schizophrenia Scourge Afflicts Millions

About 2 million adults in the United States have schizophrenia, a psychosis linked to abnormal brain chemistry. Many are paranoid schizophrenics.

Untreated paranoid schizophrenics live in an inner world populated by thoughts that other people are conspiring to hurt or kill them.

They may be tormented by auditory hallucinations, including voices that order them to injure themselves or others.

Up to 25% of people with schizophrenia commit suicide, according to the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill. Others turn violence outward, frightened by the delusions of a brain that is “firing wrong,” said Mary Latham, a board member of the Minnesota Bio Brain Assn., which helps families cope with schizophrenia.

“Often, the diagnosis for the person who goes into the fast-food restaurant and blasts away some people is paranoid schizophrenia,” said Twin Cities psychiatrist William Brauer, who works extensively with paranoid schizophrenics.

Schizophrenia is treatable. Neuroleptics--powerful drugs that change brain chemistry--can decrease or eliminate distortions in thought, although how they work isn’t completely understood.

The drugs also can have serious side effects, including tardive dyskinesia, a potentially irreversible syndrome of involuntary, jerky movements.

Treatment may be given through injections that relieve symptoms for two weeks or longer, or through daily, oral doses.

But the simple fix offered by neuroleptics collapses under a simple fact: Medication can’t work if it’s not taken, and schizophrenics may forget or refuse to take drugs.