Hello and welcome to the zero to finals podcast. My name is Tom and in this episode

I'm going to be talking to you about schizophrenia. And you can find written notes on this topic at

zero to finals.com slash schizophrenia or in the psychiatry section of the

0 to finals more medicine book. And you can find questions to train your knowledge on this content

and help you remember the information for longer at members.0 to finals.com. So let's get straight into it.

Schizophrenia is a severe long-term mental health disorder characterized by psychosis.

It most often presents between the ages of 15 and 30, and it presents earlier in men compared to women. The symptoms must

be present for at least six months before schizophrenia is diagnosed. Schizoaffective disorder

combines the symptoms of schizophrenia with bipolar disorder.

Patients have psychosis and the symptoms of depression and mania.

Schizophrenm disorder presents with the same features as schizophrenia, but it lasts less than six months.

A tom tip for you, you might have to explain schizophrenia simply to a relative in your

OSCI exams. A health example for how to do this might be, schizophrenia is a condition that

affects how the brain processes information.

Normally, the brain is very good at understanding reality,

deciding on what is important and what's not important,

and organising thoughts in a structured way.

With schizophrenia, the brain struggles to understand the world, making mistakes in deciding

what information is important and organizes thoughts in a confused way.

This leads to strong beliefs that do not fit with reality, which are called delusions.

They may also experience voices that are not there, and these are called delusions. They may also experience voices that are not there,

and these are called hallucinations.

...