What is schizophrenia? This question has driven my career since I started my training in 1999. The princeps of all psychiatric illnesses, as the Head of Department defined it on my very first day. I am far from answering the question, but what I learnt is that it is not an illness, but a syndrome with multiple causes and clinical presentations (schizophrenias). I am painfully aware that people diagnosed with schizophrenias die 20 years earlier than the general population and that our treatments are not always effective or well tolerated. Sometimes, medication can even cause paradoxical side effects that, studied carefully, might also tell us how the brain works. I also know that a decrease in motivation (apathy) is at the core for the long-term recovery, and we don’t know how to treat it.

Our activity centres around people with chronic schizophrenia(s), with its endless presentations and unmet needs. The clinical work, and source of knowledge, is at the local public mental health trust, the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation trust (CPFT) through the Clozapine clinic and the Cambridge Psychosis Centre.

The research is at the Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, with two main questions: What is schizophrenia(s) and how can we help the life of those diagnosed with it.

Emilio Fernández Egea