Introduction

Some Facts about Schizophrenia

• Schizophrenia is the most disabling of all psychotic disorders and results in a disproportionate amount of related mental health services.
• Schizophrenic patients occupy up to 25% of all psychiatric hospital beds and represent 50% of admissions to psychiatric hospitals.
• Schizophrenia is the most costly mental illness and represents approximately 2.5% of annual health care costs in the U.S.
• In 1995, the annual expenditure in the U.S. related to schizophrenia was $65 billion, not including indirect costs to patients, families, caregivers, and society.
• Mortality in schizophrenia is 2-4 times that of the general population and lifespan is on the average 12-15 years shorter than the general population. This is ascribable to factors such as suicide, cardiovascular, and respiratory diseases.
• Approximately 4-10% of patients with schizophrenia die by suicide; the rate of suicide is highest among young males and in industrialized countries.
• Mean age of onset and age at first hospitalization is lower if the patient has a history of substance abuse.
• Patients with early onset schizophrenia are more likely to have suffered birth complications.
• The World Health Organization reports that the course of schizophrenia is typically more severe in developed countries than in developing countries but that the incidence of schizophrenia is similar in the 10 countries included in the study.