Schizophrenia symptoms set in early but get ignored

The number of schizophrenia cases being reported in the state is on the rise. But lack of awareness, the stigma associated with the condition and other such factors are preventing families from identifying it early in life. In fact, experts say that symptoms of the disease can be seen in early adolescence and teenage but most of the times, families miss or deliberately ignore these symptoms due to their reluctance to accept the fact that there is a problem.   

“Of the 280 new patients that I have here, 60% are cases of schizophrenia. Most of them are in the age group of 30 to 45 years. It is quite probable that they may have exhibited symptoms in their teenage years itself which were ignored due to lack of awareness,” said Dr Ajay Chauhan, superintendent of Hospital for Mental Health, Ahmedabad.

According to him, 40% of schizophrenia cases can be treated completely if detected early. In the rest, 50% of time it is possible to control it with medicines.

“But often, by the time patients come to us it is too late. Moreover, you should remember that schizophrenia is a disorder, not a disease. In hardly 10% of the cases does it so happen that patients come to us the moment they detect any symptoms,” said Dr Chauhan. He said that families take quite some time to accept that their loved one is a patient of schizophrenia.

It is a biological, psychological and social disorder caused by neurochemical imbalance in the brain. “In many cases the patients exhibit odd behaviour very early in their teens including being in their own thoughts, a belief that they have a sixth sense, having delusions and hallucinations. But families often dismiss such behaviour as part of the child’s personality instead of considering the possibility of these being symptoms of schizophrenia,” said Chauhan.  

Another psychiatrist, Dr Hemang Desai, said that many of the symptoms associated with the disease when exhibited by patients in their teens are termed as ‘good behaviour’ by parents and families.  

“When a teenager stays alone, doesn’t have many friends and lives in his own world, parents believe that s/he is being a good child. The cases that get detected early are often the ones in which the patients turn aggressive,” said Dr Desai.

Those cases that don’t show aggressive symptoms are invariably detected late and the response to medication too is often sluggish. He jokes that as in the Parliament, so in schizophrenia it is aggressive behaviour that first draws attention to the fact that something is wrong.