Schizophrenia does not typically get better as you get older. The symptoms of schizophrenia may become worse over time, or they may remain the same for some people. Schizophrenia is a chronic illness that can be managed with medication and therapy, but it does not typically go away as you get older.
Older adults with schizophrenia have significant cognitive deficits in executive functioning, speed of processing, attention/vigilance, working memory, verbal learning, visual learning, reasoning, and problem-solving.
In the past, it was accepted that schizophrenia can worsen as people age. However, research in recent years suggests that although some symptoms may get worse with age, others will remain stable, and some symptoms may actually improve with age.
The age of onset in men and women
In general, schizophrenia is diagnosed in late adolescence through the early 30s. Men are usually diagnosed between the late teens and early 20s, with a peak at 21-25 years of age. Women are diagnosed a few years later, at 25-30 or again after menopause.
Average life expectancy with schizophrenia
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the decline in life expectancy among people with more severe mental illness ranges from 10–25 years . Most studies of schizophrenia show a life expectancy reduction of 10–20 years.
The last stage is the residual phase of schizophrenia. In this phase, you're starting to recover, but still have some symptoms.
“Adults with schizophrenia are about 10 times more likely to die of COPD and 7 times more likely to die of diabetes,” says a co-author of the study, Mark Olfson, MD, a psychiatrist at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York City.
Schizophrenia tends to run in families, but no single gene is thought to be responsible. It's more likely that different combinations of genes make people more vulnerable to the condition.
Unfortunately, most people with schizophrenia are unaware that their symptoms are warning signs of a mental disorder. Their lives may be unraveling, yet they may believe that their experiences are normal. Or they may feel that they're blessed or cursed with special insights that others can't see.
Schizophrenia does not have a sudden onset—meaning a person does not wake up one day with schizophrenia. Instead, the illness usually develops slowly over months or years and often comes with warning signs. These warning signs often appear when a person is becoming an adult, between the ages of 16-30.
Schizophrenia has been described as the “worst disease” to afflict mankind. It causes psychosis, which is an abnormal state of mind marked by hyperarousal, overactivation of brain circuits, and emotional distress. An untreated episode of psychosis can result in structural brain damage due to neurotoxicity.
As a psychotic condition, schizophrenia can cause some very troubling symptoms, like hallucinations and delusions, that make daily life challenging. Without treatment it can lead to isolation, an inability to work or go to school, depression, suicide, and other complications.
Despite the stability of cognitive functioning, the clinical presentation of schizophrenia may vary over the course of the illness. The symptoms and functioning in some persons with schizophrenia will worsen over time, and many will remain stable. Some, however, will improve.
In most people with schizophrenia, symptoms generally start in the mid- to late 20s, though it can start later, up to the mid-30s. Schizophrenia is considered early onset when it starts before the age of 18. Onset of schizophrenia in children younger than age 13 is extremely rare.
Schizophrenia is a severe mental health condition that can involve delusions and paranoia. A person with paranoia may fear that other people are pursuing and intending to harm them. This can have a severe impact on their safety and overall well-being.
Schizophrenia is a chronic brain disorder that affects less than one percent of the U.S. population. When schizophrenia is active, symptoms can include delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, trouble with thinking and lack of motivation.
In this early phase of schizophrenia, you may seem eccentric, unmotivated, emotionless, and reclusive to others. You may start to isolate yourself, begin neglecting your appearance, say peculiar things, and show a general indifference to life.
The symptoms of schizophrenia are usually classified into: positive symptoms – any change in behaviour or thoughts, such as hallucinations or delusions. negative symptoms – where people appear to withdraw from the world around then, take no interest in everyday social interactions, and often appear emotionless and flat.
At night time Nadia tends to experience stronger psychosis symptoms related to her Schizophrenia diagnosis, which makes it harder for others in her home. Nadia's hallucinations are often disruptive, wake the rest of her family, and tend to keep the others in her home from having restful sleep.
Dementia is commonly found in chronic schizophrenic patients who underestimate their ages by 5 years or more, a symptom known as “age disorientation”.
Though schizophrenia isn't as common as other major mental illnesses, it can be the most chronic and disabling. People with schizophrenia often have problems doing well in society, at work, at school, and in relationships.
The predominant causes of mortality in schizophrenia are now well recognised to be cardiovascular, unnatural deaths (including suicide), respiratory and cancer related.