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Schizophrenia
A type of psychological disorder characterized by hallucinations, delusions (or other psychotic symptoms), and the loss of adaptive behavior in society. It has been estimated that schizophrenia may affect approximately 1% of the population. A person suffering from schizophrenia often displays irrational thought processes and a detachment from reality, often marked by the presence of delusional thinking. Delusions can be defined as irrational beliefs not based in reality, which are believed despite all evidence to the contrary. For example, a person with schizophrenia may, through a delusion of grandeur, believe that he or she is a famous prince or princess (regardless of evidence that this is not the case). Hallucinations, in contrast, refer to the experience of sensory stimuli in the absence of any real ...