A close friend of yours has a sibling who has just been diagnosed w...

The purpose of this assignment is to explore and review the etiology, prevalence, and prognosis for schizophrenia, especially in relation to a specific case example.
In this case, a friend’s (Jared) sibling (Eric) was recently diagnosed with schizophrenia and Jared wants to know how it develops, his relative risk of acquiring it, and the prognosis of his sibling.

Exploring these concepts also warrants review of the factors associated with recovery and treatment.
Jared’s brother, Eric, was recently diagnosed with schizophrenia at age 21.
While Eric has demonstrated some strange behavior at times and often struggled with relationships, academics, and employment, things did not become unmanageable until three months ago.

He began to isolate, refusing to talk to anyone and accusing his family of trying to ruin his life.
When Jared’s parents finally got Eric to talk, he revealed that voices in his head were pointing out all the ways that Eric was being wronged by his loved ones, including their efforts to poison his food, read his mind, and control his thoughts.

While Eric had a number of other significant symptoms, these were the ones that finally made his family realize the severity of his mental disturbance and prompted them to help him get hospitalized.
The hospital included nightly family group meetings for the patients and for the families, which helped to turn the families into more knowledgeable and supportive caregivers for their struggling loved