ABSTRACT
Introduction ................................................................ 102 Why is this relevant to you? ......................................... 102 Psychosis ................................................................... 103 What does schizophrenia mean? .................................. 103 Epidemiology .............................................................. 105 Presentation ............................................................... 105
Subtypes of schizophrenia ........................................... 106 Aetiology .................................................................... 107 Management .............................................................. 109 Schizoaffective disorder ............................................... 112 Summary ................................................................... 112 Further reading ........................................................... 112
If a member of the general public was asked to describe their archetypal ‘madman’, the chances are that their reference point would be an individual with schizophrenia. Asking this archetypal layman for terms they associate with schizophrenia the odds are that ‘split personality’ and ‘violence’ are liable to be mentioned. Both terms are highly stigmatizing and in the case of the former, simply wrong, and in the case of the latter, inaccurate. In this chapter, the aim is to introduce the reader to a more scientic understanding of the disorder starting with a historical perspective.
