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Severe schizophrenia is one of the most dangerous and difficult mental disorders to treat and manage, and brain imaging performed by researchers shows that this condition may not be a single illness as previously thought. Researchers believe that the study findings and brain imaging views indicate that schizophrenia is more than a single illness, it may involve several disorders instead. The research was undertaken by Canada’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. According to senior paper author and Slaight Family Centre for Youth in Transition at CAMH director Dr. Aristotle Voineskos “Finding ways to help this particular group of people with schizophrenia is a priority as recovery is unlikely, even up to 20 years after the initial diagnosis. Social isolation, lack of work and relationships, and chronic disability are very common.”

Schizophrenia will affect 1% of the population, and severe schizophrenia includes negative symptoms like hallucinations and delusions. The disease itself is usually treated with antipsychotic drugs, but these drugs do not normally impact the negative symptoms of the related mental disorders. 20% of people who are diagnosed will develop severe schizophrenia, and this can have a profound effect on the daily functioning of the individual even after the psychosis is being controlled and managed. According to one researcher “We found alterations in a number of relationships between brain regions among those with more severe schizophrenia compared with the other groups, including those with less severe schizophrenia.” The researcher continued by explaining “This provides strong evidence that schizophrenia is not just one brain disorder.”