Understanding schizophrenia
Understanding schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is one of the psychotic disorders in which a person suffers from significant altering of their perceptions, thoughts, mood and behaviours. There are a number of genetic and environmental risk factors for developing psychosis and schizophrenia, but it remains uncertain how these factors fit together to cause the disorder. At any one time a typical community pharmacy in the UK will be dispensing prescriptions for around 15 patients with schizophrenia.
People with schizophrenia are two to three times more likely to die early than the general population, often due to preventable physical diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, metabolic disease and infections. The pharmacy team therefore has a key role in ensuring the necessary healthcare is delivered to this group of patients.