Schizophrenia is a clinical syndrome of variable, but profoundly disruptive, psychopathology that involves cognition, emotion, perception, and other aspects of behavior. The hallmark symptom of schizophrenia is psychosis, such as experiencing auditory hallucinations (voices) and delusions (fixed false beliefs).
It carries a lifetime risk of around 1%, and its early onset and tendency to chronicity mean that its prevalence is relatively high.(1)
In the 4th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, (DSM-IV), bipolar disorder constitutes a spectrum of mood disorders that includes BPI (bipolar affective disorder type I), BPII (bipolar affective disorder type II), cyclothymia and are thought to be a “bridge" between schizophrenia spectrum disorders and depressive disorders in terms of the symptomology, family history and genetics.
Childhood trauma is considered as a risk factor for psychiatric disorders across diagnostic boundaries. Childhood trauma is most likely interacting with genetic factors in the development of psychiatric disorders.