8 CONSEQUENCES OF SCHIZOPHRENIA ON HEALTH AND FAMILY - ECONOMÍA - 2025

The main consequences of schizophrenia are cognitive impairment, isolation, suicide, toxic habits, deficits in skills for daily living, impact on families and the economic cost.

Schizophrenia is a serious and deteriorating neuropsychiatric illness that is relatively frequent in society. It causes emotional, sensory, cognitive and behavioral disturbances, and affects approximately 1% of the general population.

It usually begins in early youth, since the typical age of onset is between approximately 18 and 23 years, although it can begin at any time in life. It must be taken into account that not all patients with schizophrenia suffer from the same symptoms, the same course, or the same clinical characteristics. In fact, there are different subgroups of schizophrenia depending on the symptoms presented.

However, whatever the age of onset of the disease, and the symptoms and course of each patient, there is an enormous bibliography that describes the dire consequences of schizophrenia.

Scientific evidence has been provided that reveals both medical consequences and social and family consequences of these psychotic disorders. Schizophrenia is considered the most serious psychopathological disorder and the one that causes the greatest repercussion in all areas of the patient.

What exactly is schizophrenia?

Popularly, schizophrenia is interpreted as a disease in which delusions and hallucinations are suffered. However, although delusions and hallucinations make up the pathognomic symptoms of schizophrenia, this disease goes much further.

In order to explain both the symptoms and the repercussions of the disease, a tetrasyndromic model has been developed, that is, a model in which the manifestations of schizophrenia are grouped into 4 categories. These are:

Positive symptoms

They make up the delusions and hallucinations typical of schizophrenia.

Disorganized symptoms

They group formal thought disorders, strange behaviors and inappropriate affectivity.

Negative symptoms

They refer to affective disorders, cognitive impairment, apathy and anhedonia.

Relational symptoms

They cover all the consequences at a relational and functional level suffered by the patient.

Consequences of schizophrenia on health, family and society

Next we will discuss the 8 main consequences of schizophrenia.

Cognitive impairment

Schizophrenia not only produces positive symptoms like delusions and hallucinations, it also produces negative symptoms. The duality between positive and negative refers to the level of activity of the schizophrenic brain.

While some (the positive ones) increase in the level of activity and are manifested through an increase in the speed of thought or the appearance of delusions and hallucinations, the negatives refer to a decrease in brain activity.

More specifically, negative symptoms can be grouped into two main categories: those referring to the affective state and those referring to the cognitive state.

The affective symptomatology is characterized mainly by apathy, apathy and "affective indifference". These symptoms could be interpreted as a kind of depressive state in which the schizophrenic patient does not feel like doing anything, does not enjoy anything and is unable to generate positive emotions.

Regarding negative cognitive symptoms, many schizophrenic patients manifest what is known as an allogy. Alogy refers to a series of symptoms that reveal a clear deterioration in the mental capacities of patients.

Among other symptoms, people with schizophrenia may suffer from slowed speech and thinking, poor thought content, constant blocks in their reasoning, and increased response latency.

These symptoms tend to be less frequent early in the disease but tend to become more prominent over the years. In this way, most patients with schizophrenia end up losing a large part of their mental abilities and presenting clearly marked cognitive impairment, which can often lead to a dementia syndrome.

Isolation

Other of the most typical consequences of schizophrenia is the isolation and poor social contact that patients suffer. This repercussion of the disease refers to the fourth group of symptoms that we have commented previously, that is, to relational symptoms.

This highly harmful consequence for patients with this pathology can be explained based on the other symptoms. In other words, all the symptoms of schizophrenia can greatly hinder a person's ability to socialize and have a circle of support.

The symptoms of the disease themselves make the patient have many difficulties in relating and establishing personal relationships, which is why isolation appears in abundance among subjects with schizophrenia.

Suicide

Contrary to what many people may think, suicide is a highly relevant aspect of schizophrenia since this type of behavior appears relatively frequently.

Experts from the Spanish Association of Private Psychiatry, point out that 80% of suicide cases are associated with depression, schizophrenia, a personality disorder or drug addiction.

In the case of schizophrenia, suicide is closely related to the depressive symptoms that the pathology can cause. Both the isolation and the symptoms of the psychotic disorder themselves can lead the patient to a state in which suicidal behaviors are more possible and are more prevalent.

This fact explains why suicide rates among schizophrenic patients are notably higher than in the general population and constitute one of the main consequences of the disorder.

Toxic habits

Substance use and schizophrenia have been two concepts that have always been closely linked. This is explained because there are a large number of schizophrenic patients who have toxic habits and who consume different types of drugs.

The vast majority of subjects with this disease present what is known as dual pathology, that is, a condition in which there are two disorders (schizophrenia and substance abuse) and in which both pathologies feed into each other.

There are many currents that link schizophrenia and toxic habits in a unidirectional sense, in which drug use can lead to the appearance of schizophrenia.

However, thanks to research that has been carried out in recent years, it has been concluded that substance use alone cannot cause schizophrenia.

The relationship between toxic habits and schizophrenia is two-way. On the one hand, schizophrenia increases the probability of suffering from dependence on certain drugs and, on the other hand, substance use constitutes a risk factor for schizophrenia itself.

Skill deficits

This consequence of schizophrenia is especially relevant among those subjects who experience the onset of the disease during adolescence or early stages.

Schizophrenia causes a clear deterioration in all areas of the patient, who loses a large number of skills and usually acquires a remarkably high degree of dependency.

This fact makes the development of basic skills such as cooking, cleaning the room, or carrying out proper hygiene and personal image care become very complicated activities for the patient.

Likewise, other types of more complex skills such as communicating adequately, managing personal administrative or financial aspects, or carrying out a work activity are practically unattainable actions.

In fact, training in personal and social skills is one of the main objectives of psychological treatment in people with this pathology, and they are key to limiting the dependence of the subject.

This consequence (like all the others) can vary in each patient and can be reduced if the appropriate treatments are received. However, skill deficits are one of the most commonly observed factors among patients with schizophrenia.

Consequences to the world of work

Schizophrenia is a serious disorder that affects multiple areas of a person's life and, therefore, also affects the world of work. In the first place, the onset of the pathology in adolescence or young adulthood means that in many cases the patient lacks sufficient job training to get a job.

Likewise, the skill deficit that causes the debut of schizophrenia also affects the individual's ability to enter the world of work.

In addition, the symptoms of schizophrenia itself, regardless of the group of symptoms that the patient presents (positive, negative, disorganized or relational), are also important factors that affect the ability to enter the world of work.

In general terms, the factors that intervene most directly in obtaining a job are:

1. Age: it has been shown that the older the patient, the more difficult it will be for the patient with schizophrenia to acquire a satisfactory work situation.
2. Cognitive function: in many cases, schizophrenia causes a clear cognitive deterioration, a fact that is related to the patient's work failure.
3. Previous social and educational functioning: as we have commented at the beginning of this point and the previous one, the earlier the schizophrenia begins, the less personal skills the patient will have been able to develop.
4. Awareness of illness: the lack of awareness about being ill is a phenomenon that occurs in a large number of patients and is directly related to a worse job future.

Impact on families and caregivers

Schizophrenia is a pathology that causes significant dependence in the patient. He will need the care and vigilance of his family members in order to guarantee minimum levels of functioning and lead a satisfactory life.

For this reason, the burden on family members or caregivers is one of the most important consequences of this pathology.

Economic cost

The economic cost of schizophrenia is very high, both in terms of direct costs and indirect costs.

A recent study estimated that in European countries, the cost of schizophrenia is between 3 and 4% of gross national product (GNP), exceeding 182,000 million euros per year, so this disease represents a very economic cost. important to society.

References

1. Ministry of Health. Mental Health Strategy of the National Health System. Madrid: Ministry of Health and Consumption; 2007.
2. Andlin-Sobocki P, Rössler W. Cost of psychotic disorders in Europe. Eur J Neurol. 2005; 12 (s1): 74-7.
3. López M, Laviana M, Fernández L, López A, Rodríguez AM, Aparicio A. Lalucha contraelestigma and discrimination in mental health. A complex strategy based on the information available. Rev Asoc EspNeuropsi. 2008; 101: 43-83.
4. Robinson D, Woerner MG, Alvir JM, Bilder R, Goldman R, Geisler S. Predictors of relapse following response from a first episode of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1999; 56: 241-7.
5. World Federation of Mental Health. Caring for the caregiver: why your mental health matters when you are caring for others. Woodbridge (VA): WFMH; 2010.
6. Suhrcke M, Mckee M, Sauto Arce R, Tsolova S, Mortensen J. The contribution of health to the economy in the European Union. Brussels: European Commission; 2005.