Antipsychotics and Yoga Therapy as an Adjunct Treatment for Schizophrenia

As with any disorder or sickness patients have various treatment options available to them. It’s always in the best interest of the patient to seek treatment advice from a Mental healthcare professional who has experience on schizophrenia disorder, and who can server the patient effectively. Patients who have been diagnosed with schizophrenia should look into all options available to them before choosing one treatment option in order to experience the best pathway back to a healthy life. Some of the more popular treatment options to help relive symptoms of schizophrenia have been either antipsychotic medications such as Chlorpromazine, haloperidol (haldol), perphenazine (Etafon, Trilafon), and Fluphenazine. Although medications are more common and been around for centuries other treatment options can also provide a more long-term treatment plan with positive outcomes. According to the NIMH antipsychotic medications have been around since the mid 1950’s (2014).

Clearly, this is a very serious disorder, which is often utterly incapacitating. Therefore, individuals urgently require efficacious treatment, both for survival and for quality of life, and many different kinds of treatment and therapy are used. This paper will examine the use of two of these, cognitive behavioral therapy and drug therapy, and evaluate which one is better. It will take the position that drug therapy is a more effective therapy for treating schizophrenia than is cognitive behavioral therapy.

For most individuals with schizophrenia, a thorough treatment plan is vital to assist with medication adherence, reduce hospitalization and to provide improvement in quality of life. Typically a prescription for antipsychotics is necessary not only to reduce positive

For antipsychotics such as Thorazine, major risks to the patient include dependence and withdrawal (Correll, 2013). Therefore, I would ensure that patients take the right dosage of the drug promptly. Additionally, I would ensure that the drugs are administered by a medical practitioner who is licensed. An advantageous factor for antipsychotics is that they are not highly addictive. Also, I would influence the integration of cognitive therapy to prevent relapse and dependence. I would focus my education on all ages, while considering adults above 25 years of age who form the largest percentage of

As we have seen, treatment of schizophrenia with antipsychotic drugs can have impressive results in terms of decreasing active symptoms, although it does nothing to alleviate negative symptoms or to improve cognitive functioning. Unfortunately, this kind of treatment has the drawback of extremely serious and even fatal side-effects. Newer generation atypical antipsychotics offer more hope, as they can treat both active and negative symptoms, and also improve cognitive functioning. Moreover, they have fewer side-effects. However, treatment is complicated by the fact that results are unpredictable; and in addition the side-effects that they do have can be very serious, such as diabetes, which in itself is life-threatening. However, as the potential side-effects are known, the physician has leeway to choose a drug which is a good match for the patient’s clinical profile. Then, once the patient’s symptoms have been much alleviated with an appropriate newer generation atypical antipsychotic, the patient should be able to also benefit from a range of psychotherapeutic interventions. It is argued that this is the best treatment regime to choose, as it is likely to result in the greatest improvement in quality of life, coupled with the lowest risk of potentially devastating side-effects, or of death. This is likely to be better than utilizing cognitive behavioral therapy, the results of which are not reliably known – although research has certainly shown that it is less efficacious

Antipsychotics are generally used to treat psychosis in mental disorders. These disorders include schizophrenia and bipolar disorder (Thyssen et al., 2010). Risperidone is known as an atypical second generation antipsychotic and used in the treatment of a multitude of disorders. This medication can often challenge behavioral problems that are associated with schizophrenia, autism spectrum disorder, bipolar disorder, or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (Schatzberg & Nemeroff, 2013). It is important for the prescriber to be aware of the side effect and any possible adverse reactions that may occur. There can be many detrimental side effects that someone may not enjoy,

Antipsychotic medications have become the most effective treatment for the positive symptoms of schizophrenia (Lieberman et al., 2005), but medication non-compliance tends to be a common issue among this population. Approximately one-third of people diagnosed with schizophrenia have been found to be non-compliant with their prescribed medications (West et al., 2005). Medication non-compliance is a very serious issue among this population, as it is associated with relapse, psychiatric hospitalization, and functional outcomes. However, very little is being done to address this issue. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy has recently been integrated into treatments for schizophrenia, and several studies have found it to be effective in

Medication is the foundation on which treatment of schizophrenia is based. Oftentimes, medication is combined with one or several types of psychotherapy to help the patient deal with their illness the best that they can. Antipsychotics are the most common and most effective type of medication used to treat schizophrenic patients. They are “effective in suppressing specific positive symptoms of psychosis such as hallucinations, delusions, and thought disturbance” which is why they are the most popular type of medication for schizophrenic patients (Shean, p.140). The main goal of antipsychotics is to effectively control symptoms at the lowest dosage possible. This type of medication

Schizophrenia treatment has developed to have two specific classes of drugs, typical antipsychotics and atypical antipsychotics. Typical antipsychotics were the first type of drugs to be used on schizophrenia patients. They are also known as the ‘first-generation’ drugs. Atypical antipsychotics, or ‘second-generation’ drugs are newer drugs that are now often used in replacement of the ‘first-generation’ drugs. However this progression of drug treatment for schizophrenia patients has shown little change in effectiveness as studies were unable to find distinct difference. The only real difference between the two can be seen in their prices and side effects. Although, the typical antipsychotics have now tapped into the fast-growing generic drug

For the treatment of bipolar disorder, antipsychotic medicines are sometimes prescribed to treat episodes of mania or hypomania. Examples of antipsychotic medicines include: aripiprazole, olanzapine, quetiapine and risperidone. These drugs may also be used as a long-term mood stabiliser and quetiapine can be used for the treatment of bipolar depression in the long-term. Antipsychotic medicines can be particularly useful if symptoms are severe or behaviour is disturbed. As there is a chance that the antipsychotics could cause side effects, the initial dose will usually be low. These side effects could include weight gain, blurred vision, constipation and dry mouth. If prescribed an antipsychotic medicine, regular health checks will be required at least every three months. If the symptoms don 't improve, the patient may be offered lithium and valproate as well.

The issue of whether psychotherapy is effective on schizophrenia has been a widely debated topic. First, Denise Grady says that antipsychotic drugs work far better than psychotherapy for most patients (88). Denise Grady also says that people with schizophrenia are either too sick to be reached by psychotherapy or, thanks to medication, too well to need it (87). Finally, Denise Grady says psychotherapy is useless and harmful to patients in treating schizophrenia (88). Second, Turkington, Kingdon, and Weiden, individual psychotherapy of any form cannot work for schizophrenia. Lastly, Turkington, Kingdon, and Weiden say that people with schizophrenia are too cognitively impaired for psychological approaches. Furthermore, Torrey says that Cognitive

Schizophrenia is a well-known emotional and mental disorder that causes hallucinations, and paranoid and delusional behaviour (Hoffer, 2004). In contrast to many other diseases, schizophrenia is mostly due to genetics and influenced by the environment. People who suffer from this disorder usually cannot differentiate from the imaginative world from the real one. Schizophrenia is often a result of stress and develops gradually (DeLisi, 2011). It is therefore, essential to start early treatment of the disorder. To better understand Schizophrenia, one must know the symptoms, the treatments, the prognosis and the effect the disease has on the schizophrenic and others around them.

Schizophrenia currently has no cure, but there are various treatments that can be utilized to manage its symptoms. The first step to adequately treat a schizophrenic patient is a correct diagnosis; Tsuang, Glatt, and Faraone (2011) write that, “Differential diagnoses are crucial in the treatment of patients with schizophrenia to rule out other conditions” (p. 13). After a conclusive diagnosis, treatment options are discussed and “neuroleptics are usually first choice for treatment” (Tsuang et al., 2011, p. 94).

Medication plays a large part in the treatment of schizophrenia. Medication appears to improve the long-term prognosis for many people with schizophrenia. Studies show that after 10 years of treatment, one--forth of those with schizophrenia have recovered completely, one--fourth have improved considerably and one-forth have improved modestly. (www.nami.org/helpline/schizo) About 80 percent of those who stop taking their medications after an acute episode will have a relapse within one year.

Seeman, P. (2002). Atypical antipsychotics: mechanism of action. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, [online] pp.27-38. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11873706 [Accessed 11 Nov. 2016].