The Split Personality Myth

Perhaps the most common misconception about schizophrenia concerns the nature of the disease itself. Polls conducted in 2005 and 2008 suggest that between 40 percent and 64 percent of the general population believe having schizophrenia is the same as having a split personality. Split personality is an inaccurate term for what psychiatrists used to call multiple personality disorder but now call disso-ciative identity disorder, and it is a type of mental disorder entirely different from schizophrenia.

Dissociative personality disorder was made famous by the book and film versions of The Three Faces of Eve and Sybil, accounts of women who had experienced terrible abuse as children and developed multiple, distinct personalities as a result. These personalities coexist in one person and manifest themselves at different times. This is in no way similar to the psychotic episodes people with schizophrenia endure. The “split” in schizophrenia is a gap between reality and what a patient's hallucinations and delusions lead him to believe.

The Bad Drug Experience Myth

Some illegal drugs — for example, stimulants such as cocaine and amphetamine and hallucinogens such as LSD and psilocybin — may produce symptoms in some otherwise healthy users that are similar to those seen in schizophrenia. The drug effects are usually short-lived and most often disappear after a matter of hours or days. These experiences do not produce or result in schizophrenia. It is true, however, that people with schizophrenia are particularly sensitive to the effects of many illegal and some legal drugs, which can seriously compromise their physical and mental health and interfere with successful therapy.