Schizophrenia is believed to have been in mankind throughout its history. Documents that identify schizophrenia can be traced to Pharaonic Egypt, dating back to 2000 B.C., Depression, dementia and other symptoms that are found in typical schizophrenia are described in detail in the book of hearts (Ebers papyrus) which is the oldest and most important medical papyri of ancient Egypt. Later on in history everyone who was considered abnormal whether due to mental illness, mental retardation or physical deformities were treated the same. Theories suggested that disorders were caused by evil possessions and the only treatment was exorcising the demons through means ranging from making the patients listen to certain music to drilling a hole in the patient’s skull to release the evil spirits. Schizophrenia was first identified as a discrete mental illness by Dr. Emile Kraepelin in 1887, she used the term “Dementia praecox” for the individuals with the symptoms for schizophrenia. In 1911, A swiss psychiatrist named Eugen Bleuler coined the term schizophrenia stemming from the Greek words “Schizo” Which means “split” and “phrene” which means “mind” to describe the fragmented thinking of people with the disorder not to describe split personality disorder.
Schizophrenia is a group of severe brain disorders in which people interpret reality abnormally sometimes in hallucinations, delusions and disordered thinking and behavior. 1% of people world wide suffer from schizophrenia and Schizophrenia affects over 2.2 million Americans. This means you may have met a person with schizophrenia and not even know it.
The causes of schizophrenia are genes, exposure to viruses or malnutrition before birth, problems during