Schizophrenia in women

Abstract

This paper examines schizophrenia in women, since it is now well established that men and women differ in terms of the onset, manifestation and longitudinal course of schizophrenia. The paper emphasizes the sex differences in schizophrenia, the epidemiological features of this group of disorders, treatment issues in relation to physical health and family factors, pregnancy and breastfeeding, and how sex differences might provide clues to the aetiology of schizophrenia. The focus is on explaining sex differences in schizophrenia in which men and women may be differently vulnerable to subtypes of those disorders currently classified under the label of ‘schizophrenia.’