Surviving Schizophrenia, 6th Edition: A Family Manual

by E. Fuller Torrey

Since its first publication nearly twenty years ago, Surviving Schizophrenia has become the standard reference book on the disease, helping thousands of patients, families, and mental health professionals to better deal with the condition.  In clear and compassionate language, Dr. E. Fuller Torrey explains the nature causes, symptoms, and treatment of this often misunderstood illness.  The classic guide also addresses the many issues of living with the disease, for both patient and family, and includes the latest research findings on the causes of and treatments for schizophrenia.  Also here are lucid answers to the questions most commonly asked by families, consumers, and providers.  This fully revised fourth edition of Surviving Schizophrenia is a must-have for the multitude of people affected — both directly and indirectly  — by this serious, yet treatable, disorder.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Mental Health, Mental Illness, Science, Health, Psychiatry

512 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1983

Reviews

[Sean A. · Rating 2 out of 5]

i read this book last year when i was reading a lot of stuff about my condition as a schizophrenic. this was at the same time the most and least helpful book in that streak. it was crammed with facts about the disorder and i could tell torrey seems really sympathetic towards 'consumers' and wants to advocate from their perspective, but this book also kind of made me feel like shit at the same time. as someone who can function independently in society for the most part i found it sobering to read the whole gamut of shitty symptoms and treatments schizophrenics endure. i liked how hard he tried to get folks to relate to and not stigmatize mentally ill people but then here he is talking like a medical-model-know-it-all-man about what is best for schizophrenics. i just don't know. can't really recommend it to anyone i know, not even my parents, at least for me personally cus it doesn't really tell my story and so forth.
also, i know this is standard medical model lingo, but i really don't like being called a consumer, it makes me feel like shit.
read 'the center will not hold' instead if you want to learn FIRSTHAND what its like to have such a disorder.

[Owen Spencer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This must be one of the best books about schizophrenia. I learned a lot. I highly recommend it to everyone. Schizophrenia continues to be the most misunderstood illness of all. Take home messages: antipsychotic medication is essential for treatment; 25% of schizophrenics fully recover, 25% recover a lot, 25% recover a little, and 25% don't recover at all; insight-oriented psychotherapy HARMS schizophrenics, whereas cognitive-behavioral and problem-solving therapies are helpful; drugs, alcohol, and stress exacerbate schizophrenia and cause psychotic relapses.

[Alexis · Rating 3 out of 5]

My teacher for Dual Diagnosis is openly attempting to convert us to clinicians who work with severe mental illness. She has assigned three books by E Fuller Torrey that are long and are due in a short amount of time. Mr. Torrey is already being moderately successful in converting me, but mainly I'm just gaining incredible insights into the disease. I feel like anyone could read this - it's not even that much of a downer like you'd think - it's just really fascinating!

Mr. Torrey has become somewhat of a pariah in his profession by taking a bold stand on Assisted Outpatient Treatment and even suggesting that people should be medicated against their will. He strongly believes that Clients Rights are secondary (at times) to public safety. Now that I'm interning in a residential facility providing respite to individuals with chronic, persistent, and severe mental illness, it's quite clear that to ignore client's rights is to get us back to a mental health system characteristic of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Arg. It's not an easy system to navigate and Torrey's is passionate about his position. Interesting read!

[Markus · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is essentially about the battle between biological model and psychological model of schizophrenia and of mental illness in general. These two models don’t need to exist separately or mutually exclusively in my opinion, but according to E. Fuller Torrey the biological model of schizophrenia is indisputable. He denies possible psychological origins of this disease as the results are not conclusive enough to establish a causative link and he relies on the observed physiological brain changes observed in schizophrenic patients that establishes schizophrenia, at least in his mind, as a medical condition just like diabetes or Alzheimer’s disease.

There does seem to be specific brain areas with gray matter volume loss and abnormal function in schizophrenia cases. This https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles... meta-analysis from 2024 shows that the main changes in early onset schizophrenia cases (before age 18) compared to healthy controls were in the right superior temporal gyrus that plays a crucial role in auditory information processing, language processing and auditory memory. Then there’s this https://www.sciencedirect.com/science... meta-analysis from 2012 of first-episode schizophrenia cases showing loss of gray matter volume and functional impairments in MeF/ACC that regulate emotional processing and higher executive functions.

Still, this is a complex subject and going into it with a skeptical mind will lead one down a very deep rabbit hole. One question that arises, at least in my mind, that Torrey dismissed outright with little to no proper reasoning or data, is the role neuroleptics (antipsychotic medications) play in observed brain changes of schizophrenia patients. This is where it gets more interesting. If we go back to the latter cited meta-study and read through the results, we see that the MeF/ACC areas were significantly more severely decreased in medicated patients compared to patients who had never received neuroleptics (“antipsychotic-naïve patients”). About 75% of the studies where most of the patients had received neuroleptics showed the significant decreases of gray matter volume, whereas only 25% of the studies showed similar changes, where most of the patients hadn’t been treated with neuroleptics. We also have this https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama... study about long-term antipsychotic treatment and its effect on brain changes, showing that greater intensity of antipsychotic treatment was associated with indicators of generalized and specific brain tissue reduction after controlling for effects of the other 3 predictors.

Then there are studies of macaque monkeys that are given antipsychotics because for obvious reasons we cannot give healthy human subjects antipsychotics and study their brains. This one https://www.nature.com/articles/1300710 shows pronounced general shrinkage effect of ∼20% and a highly significant variation in shrinkage across brain regions after the monkeys were given antipsychotics (Olanzapine or Haloperidol) for 17-27 months. Their blood levels of these drugs were monitored to maintain a comparable level to people with schizophrenia that are treated with these medications. Then later in a similar study https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles... by the same authors they conducted a cellular study of the brains of these monkeys and found a significant, 20.5% lower astrocyte number with a non-significant 12.9% lower oligodendrocyte number in the antipsychotic-exposed monkeys. These cells play an important role in cognitive functions and we know that these brain changes are also present in people with schizophrenia.

What we are left with is a big mess of correlations, causalities, reverse-causalities, side-effects, monetary interests of drug companies and a personal defensiveness of a whole industry of professionals. Either way the manner in which the author completely dismisses anything other than his precious biological model of schizophrenia is quite telling. He goes on to talk about his sister who has schizophrenia and has been in and out of hospitals all her life and presumably this is the reason he so desperately wants the disease to have nothing to do with psychology.

He talks about some books, writers, other psychiatrist writers like Thomas Szasz or R.D. Laing among others. He calls them quacks and accuses those who believe there to be psychological underpinnings to this disease, of blaming innocent mothers for people having brain diseases. It’s also quite funny how he talks about Elyn Saks’s book The Center Cannot Hold, where Saks contributed a lot of her success in dealing with schizophrenia to good therapy, and he says that she doesn’t know what she’s talking about because obviously her success was due to the medications in his mind. He refrains from calling her a quack though, probably because she doesn’t threaten his world-view as much as Laing and Szasz, whose writings I have personally enjoyed immensely. To be fair Laing was a violent alcoholic but his writings were still very good. Similarly, Alice Miller’s, the Polish-Swiss psychologist’s, writings about parental child-abuse were downright revolutionary and very popular but she turned out to be a manipulative, abusive, narcissistic mother, but I digress.

With regard to people blaming mothers for “giving their children schizophrenia”, it does sound very incendiary and is meant to paint this whole side of mental illness with a broad brush of ridiculousness, irrelevancy and shame but the topic of chronic stress, child abuse and neglect and its resulting brain changes is very real and also completely ignored by Torrey in this book.

In this https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles... review article, we see the link between child abuse and the associated brain changes to be very likely a causal relationship as some identical regional brain findings can be seen in animals randomly assigned to experience early life stress and many studies have reported a clear dose-response relationship between severity of exposure and magnitude of the neurobiological findings. The results are consistent across laboratories and populations, and the temporal relationship is supported by the available longitudinal studies. Sources are in the article.

According to Torrey this causality between child abuse and brain changes is more likely in reverse, meaning that the brain changes come first and then the children are abused as a result. So children who are a little slower, more impulsive or cognitively less acute due to these brain changes would be violently, sexually abused by perfectly normal parents, who are otherwise loving and non-abusive? For a source he cites a passage from Eugene Bleuler’s 1911 book Dementia Praecox, where Bleuler talks how the signs of mental disease often exist before the suspected psychic trauma.

I think we have case here of investing too deeply into the medical model of mental illness and denying data that goes against it which also seems to be the direction psychiatry in general has been going for some time. I don’t think psychiatry and psychology are that different, just that one side likes to pretend to be important brain doctors. Perhaps psychiatry and psychology should be taught as a combined course instead of the way they are taught and practiced completely separately today. I’m not sure how beneficial that is to the patient in the end.

I do respect Torrey as he takes his profession with a passion that is admirable and he cautions people to not trust psychiatrists in general as they are monetarily influenced by drug companies which shows healthy skepticism towards his profession and genuine care for patients. He has written a comprehensive book meant to help individuals and society in general in surviving this disease and throughout the book it is evident that he cares deeply about this topic. If I was practicing in America, this book would be amazingly useful in that he provides a lot of groups and local resources for patients to get additional help after and during hospital treatment.

[Lani · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finally finished this after literally years of putting it off. As a daughter of a schizophrenic (Torrey's "consumers"), and a former psych major, a lot of this information was stuff I already knew. However, I do think it is important to educate everyone - families, consumers, providers, and the public about schizophrenia and its effects on lives and society.

For someone just being diagnosed with the disease, or their family, I think this is a very helpful book. Since it is broken down into helpful sections - what schizophrenia is, what it isn't, treatment options, advocacy, how to deal as a family member, etc - it is easy to target your reading. Torrey focuses on removing the stigma of the disease by frequently comparing it to "real" diseases of the body like diabetes, MS, or epilepsy.

I found the sections on understanding the disease from a consumer's point of view particularly good. I find it nearly impossible to accept my mother's illness, but when placing yourself in a consumer's shoes it is clear that there is some logic to their behavior. It is important to try to understand where the consumer is coming from, and accept the beliefs as valid beliefs in his or her mind - even if they are not necessarily based in reality.

I also appreciate Torrey's attacks on the public mental health system. He places much blame on the tendency to shuffle mental health back and forth between federal and state governments, and a recent focus on mental wellness of the public vs. the mentally ill. As someone who has tried very hard to have a family member forcibly committed, the frustration with the ACLU and other patient's rights groups was also very familiar.

In general, I think this is a good all around book about the disease. It breaks down the symptoms in ways that the average person can understand, and much of the information is in a consumer's own words. Sections on treatment and medication were a little overwhelming, but could be extremely helpful when tackling actual treatment scenarios and trying to juggle the myriad of medications involved in the process.

The appendices include a long list of resources - good books and videos (and bad examples as well), contact information for advocacy and support groups, and a lengthy bibliography.

The book crams a lot of information in, but is a great resource while still being accessible to a variety of readers. Certainly a book to read while dealing with the disease - as a consumer or a family member - and to keep on the bookshelf to refer to as the treatment progresses.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding. Treats you like you are an intelligent reader. Learned more here about schizophrenia- causes, issues, treatment, meds - than any other source. Much material is from people suffering from the disease. Sending from iPhone, so won't write more now , but I highly recommend this book.

[Priyanshu Mani · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was recommended this book by a friend and I just hope that by recommending it, I also act as that friend to strangers on the net. It is without doubt an excellent book. I don’t know this, but I am guessing that people in this field regard it as a holy book.

Why should you read this book?

Is someone around you (friends/family or you yourself) behaving in a different than usual manner. To be specific, are they experiencing- difficulty in concentrating, anxiety, restlessness and more importantly the typical symptom of the disease- auditory/visual hallucinations? If yes, they must be taken to a psychiatrist (not to be confused with a psychotherapist). If the diagnosis by the practitioner is psychosis (schizophrenia/bipolar disorder or somewhere on that scale), you should definitely read this book.

Even if answers to both the above questions is no, you can continue to read the book out of curiosity (and awareness) or if you are a psychiatrist, psychotherapist or a medical practitioner.

What does the book cover?

It starts by describing what the patient feels (this develops the required empathy in often frustrated family and friends), defining schizophrenia (what is and what is not schizophrenia) and pondering upon the causes (which are not yet clear). It then moves on to treatment (including selecting a psychiatrist, discussion on medication and therapy), rehabilitation services (what they should look like and examples from around the world) and concludes with tips for the patients and their family in the form of commonly asked questions, solutions to major problems faced by them etc.

The first few chapters give multiple examples of how a schizophrenia patient behaves and lists out the symptoms used to identify the illness (as per different medical bodies around the world). He also warns here that in early stages of schizophrenia a person may be experiencing things that are not visible to their family. They may be hearing voices (auditory hallucinations) for weeks or months before family members become aware of it.

An excerpt of what a schizophrenic patient felt like -

“The walk of a stranger on the street could be a sign to me which I must interpret. Every face in the windows of a passing streetcar would be engraved on my mind, all of them concentrating on me and trying to pass me some sort of message.”

Next, the book also talks about the probable causes of schizophrenia and discusses various theories that were in vogue at different points of time from the 18th century to the present. Dr Fuller was one of the first to tell the world that it is not an illness that can be merely treated by talking to the patient or through therapy. He goes on to discredit some popular cause theories like childhood trauma or depression due to family/marital discord. It is an illness that affects specific parts of the brain and also needs medication.

The next few chapters talk about the medication, the types of antipsychotics and ways of administering them to patients. Another fact the book discussed was that around 50% of such patients suffer from Anosognosia or an inability to know that their brain is not functioning normally. In such cases, the patient is adamant that they are perfectly fine (they could be thinking that you are part of the conspiracy to label them mad or to kill them!) and would refuse to take medications. There are workarounds should such situations arise, as are discussed in the book.

An excerpt from the book, mentioning what might happen if you try to logically counter the delusions -

“If you are walking with such a person and try to reason him/her past these delusions, your efforts will probably be futile…..Reasoning with people about their delusions is like trying to bail out the ocean with a bucket.”

The chapters at the end discuss what medical care, rehabilitation service and community environment should look like for patients. The book discusses consequences of leaving patients untreated and homeless, for the society. It might result in increased crime rate (schizophrenia patients are at high risk of being victims or perpetrators). Justice and policing systems around the world have a history of making erroneous judgements by either over compensating for the perpetrator’s mental illness or by not considering it.

Some successful examples of collaborations between civic, police, and medical fraternity are also mentioned in the book. I wonder whether such services and support exist in India. Sample an excerpt-

“The Mental Health Support Team consists of 10–12 specially selected officers and detectives, many of whom have relatives with a serious mental illness, whose only job is to respond to mental illness-related police calls. Team members wear civilian clothing and drive unmarked cars to minimize the stigma associated with their calls.”

The one thing this book will give to the reader is hope and I believe that is crucial for friends, family and patients. Dr Fuller (whose own sister was a schizophrenia patient) drives home the point (by quoting studies from across the world) that most patients can lead fulfilling lives with proper medication and support. With proper treatment the disease may be compared to diabetes, where the patient might have to take medications for the remainder of their life, but can lead normal lives.

Another parting excerpt -

“If the brain was so simple we could understand it, we would be so simple that we couldn’t.”

[Amila · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great resource if you know someone with schizophrenia. Torrey explains how, despite over two centuries of medical research, this disease is still highly misunderstood and can be very difficult to navigate. The overview provided and list of further resources helps meet this need for information which can be a life-saver, relieving stress and guilt, and building confidence and even hope. Based on personal experience, I don't agree with his interpretation of cause as independent of stress and recreational drugs, but still think it is a great first book for those of us just learning about this illness.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although written as a practical, information manual (and succeeding very well!), it turns out to also be always compassionate, at times sorrowful, and many times scathing towards the insanity of the mental health care system in the US. He intersperses quotations from literature, from poetry, and best, from accounts from schizophrenics. I couldn't put it down.

I didn't expect to cry while reading a manual. Or laugh--he has some decidedly strong opinions about organizations, psychiatrists, and theories. example, re: American Psychiatric Association:

"Most exhortations produce occasional spasms of institutional guilt, resulting in study groups or conferences but little else. Therefore, most of the the time, the APA continues to act simply as a union for the nation's privately practicing psychiatrists. As such, it is no more likely to provide leadership for individuals with schizophrenia than is the Brotherhood of Teamsters or the AFL-CIO."

[Lenny Husen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a truly awesome book, but not a fun read. A must for physicians, nurses, family members or loved ones of anyone with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. This is The Bible for how to navigate and understand the world of serious mental illness.
Highly recommend for anyone with an interest in the topic.
Torrey writes well and passionately, as well as credibly. He includes a list of the best and worst resources and books about Schizophrenia--some of his reviews are very funny.
I so much appreciate Torry's compassionate non-judgmental approach and found Chapter 11 "How Can Patients and Families Survive Schizophrenia?" outstanding--read it twice and got more out of it the second time.
This is a book to have as a reference and to have on hand for rereading relevant sections.
There is far to much well-researched and excellent information to take in even in the six weeks it took me to finish the book.

[Cassian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Torrey has his own perspective, and he's clearly an older guy, because he can say some offensive things at different points. ALSO, I wouldn't want my beloved schizophrenic to start this book because it begins with a startlingly horrible admission of a mother who would rather her daughter had leukemia over schizophrenia.

BUT, incredibly informative on the socio-cultural-familial-pharmaceutical how-does-one-survive this disease fronts. Really learned a lot, (and felt quite a bit freer and happy after finishing, for having learned a bit more). Would love to know a bit more about what is know re: biological/social roots of schizophrenia, but assume he left that out in order not to cause families guilt or worry about having contributed to the disease genetically or socially. The book is about how to deal, not how to know everything.

Highly recommend for families of schizophrenics.

[Fishface · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am going to throw this book away after writing my review. It's an absolute joke, full of misinformation. It's geared only to people who have insight into their schizophrenia and those who buy into the you-have-a-chemical-imbalance school of thought. The author also clearly assumes (in a book published some years before the passage of the Affordable Care Act) that all readers have easy access to adequate mental-health treatment, because at no point does it address that essential issue; in this book, all the help you need is just a phone call away and money is no object. It also completely ignores the need for any kind of support but psych meds and the book never addresses the serious, serious drawbacks of that family of drugs. Don't go near this book if you, or someone you love, wants real help. It's the read of a lifetime if you're into shrink-bashing, though.

[Sydney Watson · Rating 4 out of 5]

although this was a class assignment - this book is very eye opening and answered all of my questions about this horrible disease; definitely learned a lot. makes me want to read more non-fiction.

“you can’t stop the bird of sorrow from flying over your head, but you can stop it from making a mess in your hair” - favorite line

[Lacey]

I highly recommend this book to anyone who has had an interest in learning more about schizophrenia. It's full title is Surviving Schizophrenia: A Manual for Families, Consumers, and Providers, and it seems to me to be a great starting point to learning more about this disease. I found the book easy to read (though long) and very informative. Since I work in the mental health field, this book has given me a lot of new insight, and being the nerd that I am, I enjoyed the chapter on "Schizophrenia in the Public Eye" (which discusses schizophrenia in literature, movies, and famous people who have had the disease), as well as Appendix A, which is an annotated list of "50 of the Best and 15 of the Worst Books on Schizophrenia." Also, at the end of each chapter the author gives a list of recommended reading. However, the chapter that had the biggest impact on me was the second, which quotes people who have schizophrenia on what experiencing the symptoms is actually like.

I think what I liked most about this book is that it's not simply just a description of the disease. The author is advocating for better services and more humane treatment of people with schizophrenia. The last chapter is geared specifically for advocates and what they can do to help. This book is truly a tool for people who have the disease, their families, and the people who work with them.

Note: I read the 4th edition (the one available at my local library), which was published in 2001 (the 1st edition came out in 1983). There is now a 5th edition, which shows how quickly research is churning out new information. The hopeful thing is that research on schizophrenia is increasing as people learn how devastating the disease is for everyone.

[Caitlin Duffy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Compassion follows understanding. I regularly interact with individuals who experience psychosis and symptoms of schizophrenia at the crisis hotline I volunteer with. This book helped bridge my understanding to what individuals with schizophrenia might be experiencing and how they may be acting completely rationally based on how their brains intake stimuli and process the world around them. Additionally, it gave me greater insight into the schizophrenia “spectrum” and its overlap with the symptoms and physical manifestations of bipolar disorder - there is speculation they may both be a part of the same disease. Ultimately, Torrey does an excellent job of explaining a disease that is very difficult to understand for someone who is not personally impacted - as well as helps fight the stigma and makes it easier to truly empathize with individuals who experience schizophrenia or symptoms of psychosis present in other illnesses. I genuinely believe this book has improved my ability to connect more deeply with individuals who have this illness.

[August · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did not 100% agree with everything and felt that Torrey was speaking directly to the families of those with schizophrenia rather than the individuals with it, so that was disappointing. It also offers little hope and is rather depressing. It was deeply interesting and educational, though. There's even a few mentions of Schizoaffective disorder which is rarely discussed in literature. The book reads more like a textbook than a family manual, but that's just bad marketing. The book was great for the most part.

[Mia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really an outstanding walk-through of what is and isn't known about this most feared mental illness--I learned more about schizophrenia in the first three chapters than in all of my graduate psychopathology classes. Somehow, Torrey's writing comes across as calm and comforting to me even though the topic is so bound up in sorrows; he never leaves out the humanity of those suffering. I appreciate, too, that he places the knowledge we have about schizophrenia in a historical context.

[Deidre · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an absolutely amazing reference for anyone who loves someone with this very complicated brain disease. It helped me know signs of psychosis and all of the other awful things that the person living with this is coping with. If you love someone with schizophrenia and have not read this book, I'd say to order it now.

[Joanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent guide to anyone who knows anyone who has this disease. A human approach to to a mysterious illness.

[Mily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book for anyone who wants to learn more about Schizophrenia.
Especially good for family members.

[Joshua · Rating 5 out of 5]

This has a lot useful information for families who have a schizophrenic. There is a lot of good practical advice for dealing with the many problems connected to this illness.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is an excellent resource for individuals with schizophrenia and the people who care for them.

[Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

full of info, kinda depressing but tries to be uplifting

[Barbara]

This book found me as I've been working with patients in two Acute Psychiatric wards as the designated ward chaplain.

My first known encounter with a person with schizophrenia was in the context of a parish where I worshipped regularly in 2012-2013. At that time the person was functioning quite well, a sign that he was probably maintaining his medication protocols to limit the intrusive "private" experiences.

I've found the descriptions and living examples quite helpful for assessing when interactions with the patient will be help or less helpful through the duration of the hospitalization. I'll chane it to assert that this can be a helpful read for family and caregivers of a patient with this disease.

[Angela McCuiston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely invaluable. I have found myself in a terrible situation where my spouse and in-laws lied to me about my husband's mental illness. Instead of the depression he told me about it turns out he has either Schizophrenia, Schizoaffective disorder and/or some form of manic/bi-polar disorder. This book is a manual for understanding WHAT the disease is, the different types and variants, how to treat someone with it, combating the stigma, what to expect, etc. INVALUABLE. If you have Schizophrenia or fear you might and want to better understand your disease (including methods for recognizing a relapse and preventing a relapse)or if you know someone with it, this is a MUST READ.

[Jen Appell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a really helpful and readable source on schizophrenia. It was highly recommended by several information websites about the illness, and it was very helpful in explaining a wide range of aspects of the illness. It also included a lot of first-hand accounts, which is great for representing the mentally ill in literature about them as well as being a great source for anyone who is interested in learning more. I read through this so quickly and I feel like I gained so much knowledge from this source alone. Definitely recommended if anyone is interested in learning more.

[Heidi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent manual for managing human in general, even ones not sick. The books and movie he recommends I read and saw and they were also excellent. If this book had been written one hundred years ago, the ill, their doctors and families would be much better off and we would be now be where we need to be in our progress.

[Derek · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent overview of all matters related to schizophrenia. Contains both practical and theoretical information for the afflicted and their family members. The version I read was not the most current and of course research advances from one year to the next.

[Tegan Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is very informative read and actually fairly enjoyable as well. If you are interested in schizophrenia I would recommend Surviving Schizophrenia.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative and readable. A must for working with this population.