Schizophrenia

Figures - Nonto
Although it affects barely 1% of the population, it is one of the most disabling
diseases affecting humankind. Schizophrenia is a chronic and severe
neurological brain disorder estimated to affect approximately 24 million
people or 1 in 300 people (0.32%) worldwide. This rate is 1 in 222 people
(0.45%) among adults. It is not as common as many other mental disorders.
Age
Men and women are equally likely to get schizophrenia, but men tend to get it
slightly earlier. On average, men are diagnosed in their late teens to early 20s.
Women tend to get diagnosed in their late 20s to early 30s. People rarely develop
schizophrenia before they're 12 or after they're 40.

Childhood-onset schizophrenia (COS), is a mental illness that is characterized by

onset before age 13 years, has a prevalence of approximately 1 in 10,000. Childhood
schizophrenia is rare, and affects an estimated 0.4 percent of children. This is a
severe form of the illness with gradual onset and poor outcome.

Childhood schizophrenia may be hard to diagnose, especially in young children,

because the symptoms are similar to those of other mental health conditions.
A later onset can occur between the ages of 40 and 60, known as late onset,
and also after 60 known as very late onset.

Women are more likely to have late-onset schizophrenia than men.

Older patients typically have fewer and less severe positive symptoms than
their younger counterparts, therefore, patients with late-onset schizophrenia
typically require lower daily doses of antipsychotics compared with patients
with an early onset of the disorder.
Diagnosis
About 1.5 million people will be diagnosed with schizophrenia this year around
the world. Schizophrenia stats suggest that in a given year, roughly 100,000
people will be diagnosed with this disorder in the U.S. alone.

Schizophrenia is diagnosed 1.4 times more frequently in males than females, and
typically appears earlier in men—the peak ages of onset are 20–28 years for
males and 26–32 years for females.

To date, there are as many as 3.5 million cases of schizophrenia that have been
diagnosed. That means that in a city of three million people, about 21,000 are
living with schizophrenia. This doesn’t take into account the thousands who are
undiagnosed.
Treatments
While about half of people with schizophrenia in the U.S. receive no treatment, that
statistic is worse in other nations where nearly 70 percent of the schizophrenia
population receives no treatment to manage the condition.

Globally, only 31.3% of people with psychosis receive specialist mental health care.
Whilst an estimated 40 percent of individuals with the condition are untreated in any
given year.

Extreme depression and psychosis can result due to lack of treatment.

Some patients stop taking their medication after an acute episode. 80 percent of these
patients will have a relapse within one year, whereas only 30 percent of those who
continue their medications will experience a relapse in the same time period.
Life Expectancy
Research indicates that people with schizophrenia are 3.5 times more likely to
die than similarly aged individuals in the general population in a single year. In
general, people who have schizophrenia are likely to die 25 years earlier than
people in the general population.

Males have a 5.1 greater than expected early mortality rate than the general
population, and females have a 5.6 greater risk of early death. Suicide is the
single largest contributor to this excess mortality rate, which is 10 to 13
percent higher in schizophrenia than the general population.
Life with Schizophrenia
Only about 15 percent of people diagnosed with schizophrenia are able to
work full time. This means that they are likely to struggle with paying rent or a
mortgage. They are likely to struggle to pay for healthcare insurance.

In females, a higher frequency of comorbid (more than one disorder in the

same person) affective disorders has also been reported in some studies, as
well as a higher rate of suicide attempts and a lower rate of completed
suicide.