Schizophrenia is an incredibly consuming and costly disease.

24MM people worldwide suffer from schizophrenia, and while modern day treatments help many, roughly 50% of those suffering from this disease show little or no improvement even with treatment. 

Schizophrenia is the world’s 3rd most disabling condition, costing the US an estimated $281.6 billion in 2020, with a significant amount of direct costs due to health care, incarceration, supportive housing and homelessness.  

For each person diagnosed with schizophrenia at age 25, the total lifetime cost to the economy is approximately $3.8 million or $92,000 per year.

This disease is devastating to quality of life. 

Schizophrenia means loss of touch with reality. It is a serious illness, but it does not develop overnight. The symptoms usually worsen over a period of months or years.

It is a serious mental disorder in which people interpret reality abnormally. Schizophrenia may result in some combination of hallucinations, delusions, and extremely disordered thinking and behavior that impairs daily functioning.

Individuals with schizophrenia have a shorter than average life-span compared to those without the illness. Males have a 5.1 greater than expected early mortality rate than the general population, and females have a 5.6 greater risk of early death. Suicide is the single largest contributor to this excess mortality rate, which is 10 to 13 percent higher in schizophrenia than the general population.

Suicide is in fact the number one cause of premature death among people with schizophrenia, with an estimated 10 percent to 13 percent killing themselves. The extreme depression and psychoses that can result due to lack of treatment are the usual culprits in these sad cases. These suicides rates can be compared to the general population, which is somewhere around 0.01%.

We still have so much to learn in order to help. 

Psychotic disorders nearly always emerge in late adolescence or early adulthood, with onset peaking between the ages of 18 and 25. The reasons for its appearance in this age range have not been identified, but the age of onset often means that a patient's support system can face an uphill battle in getting help for their loved one while the symptoms of the disorder make it challenging for the patient to seek help on their own.    

Theories on the root cause of Schizophrenia have been researched - though to date there is NO definitive root cause for the illness.  

Your donation will help us fund research to determine the root cause(s) of schizophrenia, create a consistent standard of care for treatment, and ultimately cure this incredibly disabling disease.