Hi, Thanks for writing to healthcaremagic. 1st of all ,let me give you some information about schizophrenia. According to DSM IV TR , schizophrenia has 5 subtypes and paranoid schizophrenia(schiz) is one of them. In paranoid schiz ,there are hallucinations and delusions prominently as chief complaints. Schizophrenia occurs due to biological reasons especially involvement of dopaminergic neurotransmitter pathway.certain brain structures also involved specially basal ganglia.so schizophrenia is also like other physical illness where brain is involved and other psychosocial factors make impact over illness and its prognosis. Unfortunately ,there are no any specific test yet to make certain the diagnosis of schizophrenia but a good psychiatrist can diagnose the disease by using DSM OR ICD , classical diagnostic systems present for psychiatric disorders. schizophrenia has long term remitting and relapsing course. Paranoid schiz has particularly good prognosis than other type of schiz. Patient may need to take very long term medications. Sometimes if patient become defaulter for treatment then its possible that in future ,that molecule may not work.illness gets worsened after stopping medicines so its always better to continue the medicines for long run on which patient is stable. There are many drugs and even ECT ,which can control the disease. in general population per say ,100 people suffering from schiz then 33 gets completely alright ,33 will have few symptoms but at quiet manageable level and rest not gonna improve. in your case ,your wife got almost improved in past for 7 years ,that itself shows very good prognostic factor.so there are every possible chance of getting almost improved again. Hope I have answered your query, Regards, Dr.Chintan Solanki.