Schizophrenia forms the prototype of psychotic problems. It embraces a diverse range of disturbance in perception, thought, motivation, emotion and movement with frank periods of disturbed behavior in the individual’s life; set upon a background of emotional disturbance and disability. There is a ‘schism’ between thought, feeling and action. Appropriate thoughts generate apposite emotions, which in turn engender acceptable behaviors. That is what makes people ‘normal’, the fact that they are in control of themselves and their lives, and they influence their environment positively and gain form it.

Schizophrenia is caused due to chemical changes in specific areas of the emotional brain. The brain’s chemical imbalance interferes with thoughts, emotions and behavior. Social and psychological factors also contribute. If genetically vulnerable individual undergo stress, the neurotransmitter imbalance culminates in a psychotic breakdown.

People afflicted with psychoses are not in touch with reality. They have imagined beliefs, unrealistic fears and irrational emotions, cannot cope well with stress, have difficulty in organizing thoughts, and in extreme cases, cannot even care for themselves. Their attention and memory gets impaired. Holding a job, maintaining social relationships and caring for themselves becomes almost impossible. Life becomes strange and mysterious in the eyes of others. These variables are the ones typically assessed with rating scales in trials. A detailed understanding of the same helps trial staff do their best for optimal functioning of the trial.