Schizophrenia affects only about 1% of the population but costs the country as much as cancer or heart disease to treat. The illness is now recognised to be a disorder of the brain and scans show that some of the areas affected are involved in language processing. Current thinking is that these abnormalities exist before the onset of symptoms, which usually happens during the twenties. The causes of the illness are not yet understood – there is still controversy over whether it is purely genetic in origin or whether there are also environmental factors. This report summarises a briefing organised by The Royal Society as an update on the state of research in schizophrenia.
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