Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a disorder that affects a person's ability to think, feel, and behave clearly, causing people to interpret reality abnormally. Schizophrenia may result in some combination of hallucinations, delusions, and extremely disordered thinking and behavior that impairs daily functioning, and can be disabling. Schizophrenia is associated with structural and functional changes in various brain systems, such as the prefrontal and medial temporal lobe regions that are involved in working memory and declarative memory. 

Structural deficits involve reduced gray matter volume and disrupted white matter integrity which can be progressive a the beginning of this disorder. Reduced gray matter volumes of the medial temporal, superior temporal, and prefrontal areas, which control the processing of auditory information and short memory/decision making. Reduction of white matter results in possible irreversible brain damage and loss of brain function. Disrupted white matter integrity could dampen communication efficiency and result in poor motor performance.

Schizophrenia is the reduced or disrupted connectivity of brain systems. When engaged in various cognitive tasks, functional imaging techniques show that patients with schizophrenia exhibit abnormal neural activity, including assessing short-term memory, long-term memory, decision-making, and emotional processing. 

People with schizophrenia require lifelong treatment. Antipsychotic medications are the most effective treatments for patients with schizophrenia. Medications such as Risperdal and Zyprexa reduce both positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia by 40%.