Question

Summarize the association between schizophrenia and drug abuse.

Please explain the answer as if the audience had never learned psychology.

Answer 1

According to statistics nearly half of all diagnosed schizophrenics in the United States abuse drugs or alcohol. This rate is roughly four times the rate of drug and alcohol abuse found in the larger population. Some evidence suggests that a causative relationship exists between the use of certain drugs and schizophrenic symptoms. For example; some people with genetic risk predisposition for schizophrenia may develop active cases of the disorder as a result of using LSD or some other form of the hallucinogenic drug.