Plain-language, educational articles on schizophrenia, psychosis, antipsychotic medications, and lived experience — by ColdAI.
Night and rotating shifts disrupt the sleep and circadian rhythms that protect against relapse. Here is what the evidence says — and what you can do about it.
RecoveryStable housing is foundational to recovery, and the options range from group homes with on-site staff to Housing First models that prioritise an apartment of one's own. Each has its place.
TherapyStarted in the Netherlands in the 1980s, the Hearing Voices Network treats voices as meaningful experiences worth engaging with — not only as symptoms to suppress.
TherapyThe CBT for psychosis literature is large, contested, and sometimes oversold. Here is a fair-minded summary of what the trials actually show, and what they do not.
MedicationLurasidone and ziprasidone are the two atypicals most often chosen when weight and metabolic burden need to stay low — but each has its own quirks worth understanding.
MedicationBenzodiazepines have a legitimate short-term role in psychotic emergencies, catatonia, and severe insomnia. They become dangerous when they are not stopped.
ProfileDostoevsky's epilepsy, gambling, and dark imagination have been the subject of medical speculation for over a century. Here's a careful look at what the record actually shows.
ProfileKurt Snyder's memoir 'Me, Myself, and Them' is one of the most readable first-person accounts of young-adult-onset schizophrenia, written specifically for teenagers and families.
ProfileTom Harrell has lived with paranoid schizophrenia since his early twenties and has spent five decades as one of the most respected trumpeters in jazz. His career is the rare contemporary case of a major artist working consistently while openly diagnosed.
NeuroscienceThe gut-brain axis is one of the most intriguing frontiers in schizophrenia research — and one of the most overhyped. Here is what is solid and what is still speculative.
DiagnosisThe BPRS is shorter and older than the PANSS but still widely used. Here is what each of its 18 items captures and how to read BPRS results in your clinic notes.
OverviewSchizophrenia is a chronic brain condition that affects how a person thinks, feels, and perceives reality — but it is treatable, and recovery is real.
StoryTwo years ago I started recording short, monthly episodes about living with schizophrenia. The audience is small. The effect on my own recovery has been larger than I expected.
Culture and faithMuslim communities in North America are diverse and growing, with rising attention to mental-health care that integrates Islamic values. This is a guide to schizophrenia in this context.
MediaElyn Saks's 2007 memoir traces her life from Oxford to Yale Law to a tenured chair at USC — and through decades of severe schizophrenia. It is one of the most-read first-person accounts of the illness in English.
RecoveryMary Ellen Copeland began her work after her own breakdown left her unable to find practical guidance on living well with serious mental illness. WRAP grew from that gap.
SeasonsShort days and cold weather can worsen the negative and depressive symptoms of schizophrenia. Light, structure, and gentle activity all genuinely help.
MedicationBrexpiprazole is aripiprazole's structural cousin — also a partial dopamine agonist, but designed to cause less akathisia and activation.
OverviewThe early warning signs of schizophrenia — the prodrome — often appear months or even years before a first full episode. Recognising them early dramatically improves long-term outcomes.
Therapy modalitiesWRAP turned the question of mental health recovery into a writing exercise. The five key concepts — hope, personal responsibility, education, self-advocacy, and support — sit underneath six sections that any person can fill out, with or without a clinician.
DifferentialThe three Cluster A personality disorders all bear a family resemblance to schizophrenia. Telling them apart from each other and from schizophrenia is a routine but important task.
StoryThe medication was the easy part. The forgiveness took six years. I want to write about what that looked like, because nobody had told me forgiveness was a treatment too.
StoryI started swimming laps because my psychiatrist asked me to try one new thing. Three years later, the pool is the most important part of my week.
Levels of careRecovery coaches walk alongside people navigating serious mental illness — focused not on diagnosis or symptoms but on building a life worth living. Here is how the role works.
Thought disorderDerailment, sometimes called loose associations, is when ideas slip off track within a single sentence — one of the core features of formal thought disorder.
Drug interactionsOral contraceptives and antipsychotics generally combine safely, but there are some specific situations — enzyme-inducing drugs, prolactin elevation, and the menstrual cycle's effect on symptoms — where attention is needed.
City guidesPhoenix runs schizophrenia care through Arizona's RBHA model — Mercy Care holds the contract for Maricopa County. This guide maps Banner, Valleywise, the academic centres, and crisis numbers.
WorkplaceRunning your own business can be a good fit for some people with schizophrenia — control over schedule and environment, less workplace politics — but the trade-offs are real. Here is what to think through.
Women's healthMost contraceptive methods are compatible with most antipsychotics. The few interactions that matter are worth knowing about — for both effectiveness and side effects.
ResearchStructural MRI studies in schizophrenia consistently show modest reductions in cortical and hippocampal volume and modest enlargement of the ventricles — but the picture for any individual is more nuanced.