Schizophrenia
Background
Schizophrenia is a serious mental illness which affects one person in a hundred. It usually develops in the late teens or early twenties, though it sometimes starts in middle age or even much later in life. The earlier it begins, the more potential it has to damage the personality and the ability to lead a normal life. About twenty-five per cent of people will make a good recovery within five years, two thirds will have multiple episodes with some degree of disability in between and ten to fifteen per cent will be severely incapacitated.