In my fourth year of my PhD on schizophrenia and I'm currently writing up my thesis. I'm procrastinating right now so thought I'd do something useful with what I've been studying.
And no, schizophrenia is not multiple personality disorder.
Edit: I have to get dinner and run some errands. I'm really enjoying this so I will definitely get back and answer the rest of the questions.
Were there any recent-ish advancements in understanding/treatment in general? Without doxxing yourself ofc
I'm less familiar with the psychiatric side of it, although I have done a project with a psychiatric team. Honestly, as far as I know, there has been very little advances in treating schizophrenia. Most treatment (involving medication) pretty much just blasts the brain and shuts it down (hence why a lot of patients eventually go off medication, the side-effects are terrible). One of the reasons for why so little advancement has been made is because we really still don't have a clear picture of what schizophrenia is. Lots of research teams investigate their own little topic, but not many connections have been made between those topics.