Schizophrenia is a chronic, debilitating disease that affects nearly one per cent of the population, or about 600,000 people in France alone. Patients and their families and friends are often at a loss when confronted with this frightening, little-known disease that is often associated with madness, and, as was recently the case, with dramatically reported news items. Yet increased knowledge about schizophrenia has resulted in therapeutic developments that can improve patients' lives.

This book was written for patients suffering from schizophrenia, as well as for their families and friends, to enable them to take an active part in the therapeutic process.

• Knowing the disease: What are its causes? When should help be sought?

• Understanding the symptoms: What causes erratic behaviour? What provokes hallucinations? Why do so many patients have the feeling that they are at risk?

• Practical advice

• Attitudes and behaviour that should be avoided by friends and family

This book will enable the reader to acquire a practical understanding of schizophrenia. It offers simple but effective pointers to help schizophrenics as well as those who live with them. By making knowledge of schizophrenia available to a wider audience this book also aims to help overturn prejudices about the disease and to put a stop to the feelings of rejection it incites, since ignorance and fear often go hand in hand.

Also provided here is information about existing forms of treatment, especially behavioural and cognitive therapies, whose effectiveness has been demonstrated.

Jean-Louis Monestes is a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist at the teaching hospital of Amiens and a member of the laboratory of functional neurosciences and pathologies of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS). He is the author of Les thérapies comportementales et cognitives: se libérer des troubles psy (2006).