Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a chronic psychiatric disorder characterized by psychosis together with disorganized thinking, reduced motivation and cognitive difficulties.

Symptoms are grouped as positive, including hallucinations and delusions; negative, including flattened emotion, social withdrawal and lack of drive; and cognitive, including problems with attention, memory and planning. The disorder usually emerges in late adolescence or early adulthood, slightly earlier in men, and affects roughly one percent of people worldwide. Genetics, early brain development and environmental stressors all contribute.

Diagnosis requires characteristic symptoms persisting for at least six months, with substance-induced and medical causes excluded, and is made by a psychiatrist through interview and observation. Antipsychotic medication combined with psychosocial support is the established standard of care. Cannabidiol has been studied as an adjunct in a small number of trials, while heavy THC use is associated with worse outcomes; no cannabinoid is approved for schizophrenia.