Background

Schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders are a major public health problem and leading unsolved disease afflicting about 3 % of humans. They are ranked highly among causes of disability worldwide, their prognosis is often poor and they cause extensive negative personal, health, familial, social, occupational, and educational consequences. 

The current knowledge in epidemiology of schizophrenia is given to clinicians and researchers usually in textbooks and scientific articles. However, as the amount of literature is huge, it is impossible to synthesise literature and keep up with the current knowledge. Most of the national Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) related databases, such as Käypähoito (www.kaypahoito.fi) in Finland, offer only short reviews on epidemiology, instead they focus giving guidance to clinicians in treatment of diseases.

The aim of the project is to build an unique translational internet database where clinicians and researchers can search and analyze previous studies on epidemiology of schizophrenia. We also systematically explore risk factors and outcome of subjects with schizophrenia on upcoming meta-analyses.