Schizophrenia is a chronic and debilitating psychiatric illness consisting primarily of symptoms such as hallucinations and delusions, also termed as "positive" symptoms. In addition, individuals may experience "negative" symptoms which include loss of sense of pleasure, social withdrawal, impoverishment of thoughts and speech and flattening of affect. According to WHO estimates, schizophrenia affects approximately 24 million people worldwide. 1 The prevalence of schizophrenia varies across the world, within countries, and at the local and neighborhood level. 2,3 The most recent publications estimate that prevalence of schizophrenia ranges from 1.4 to 4.6 / 1000 and the median incidence varies from 0.15 to 0.20 / 1000 population/year 4,5 and it is higher (7 / 1000 population) in
BACKGROUNDSubstance abuse is associated with poor outcome in schizophrenia patients. Alcohol and cannabis were reported to be most commonly abused substances in schizophrenics. Great care is needed to manage these patients. Sociodemographic and clinical data from India is sparse and therefore the need for this study.
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