Antipsychotics and Yoga Therapy as an Adjunct Treatment for Schizophrenia

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

Antipsychotics are medications that physicians use to treat psychotic disorders such as Schizophrenia, Delusional disorder, Paraphrenia, and Substance-induced psychotic disorders. These disorders are characterised by the patient’s inability to make good judgments, think with a clear head, communicate effectively, relate to society, and understand reality. Antipsychotic drugs are also useful in the treatment of bipolar conditions that involve extreme cases of manic behaviour. Examples of these drugs include Thorazine and Trilafon. These drugs belong to a drug class called phenothiazines. They work by changing the actions of chemicals in the brain. The drugs can be beneficial, however, Steen et al. (2014) argue that the medicines have several harmful effects such as changes

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,

Antipsychotics are primarily used to manage the symptoms of psychosis, particularly schizophrenia and bipolar disorder by blocking D2 receptors in the dopamine pathway of the brain. There are two main types of antipsychotics; typical antipsychotics, also known as the first generation antipsychotics (FGA) which were developed in 1950s, example of medicine in this category include Chloropromazine, Haloperidol, Flupenthixol, and Loxapine. Atypical antipsychotics, also referred as second generational antipsychotics (SGA) which acts as an antagonist for 5HT2A receptor aside from its blocking effect on D2 receptor, drugs in this class include Olanzapine, Quetiapine, Risperidone, Clozapine and Aripiprazole.

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

It was not rare for individuals to have a relapse of their mental illness, this was normally due to inadequate taking of their prescriptions or stopping their medication entirely. Although these pharmaceuticals are effective on the positive symptoms of Schizophrenia they are not as efficient on the negative and can cause involuntary movement cognitive dulling as a

Usually taking antipsychotic medications are recommended for improvement. To be more broad, people with this disorder are also exposed to various treatment plans as well. Although this illness includes many medications, but the most effective one is antipsychotic medications- A commonly used drug that treats schizophrenia; which are tablets that control psychotic symptoms such as delusions, hallucinations, or other symptoms that the patient feels when having this disorder. Using this drug there are also side effects such as dry mouth, drowsiness, muscle stiffness, and tardive dyskinesia. If a person has used antipsychotic medication for long periods of time, eventually they might increase their risk of developing a movement disorder called tardive dyskinesia, briefly talked above which cannot be cured and can result in the malfunction of moving their face and jaws. Note that this medication reduces the symptoms of schizophrenia, not take away the cause for it. Along with the brain, antipsychotic drugs reduce the syndrome of psychosis as well as reducing the symptoms of bipolar disorder or a manic depression which are alternating periods of mood swings that lead to depression. The way this medication works is it can either decrease or alter the effect of neurotransmitters in the brain. Neurotransmitters helps transfer messages throughout the brain and along with that, dopamine and serotonin

Medication such as antipsychotics are effective for most patients. They can help manage many troubling symptoms. Although antipsychotics cause many side effects, such as dizziness fatigue, anxiety, weight gain, nausea, constipation and vomiting. because of all these side effects scientist have come up with second generation antipsychotics. These antipsychotics are Abilify, risperdal, zyprexa and quetiapine. These antipsychotics ease symptoms like delusions and hallucinations. These drugs help balance the levels of dopamine and serotonin in brains.

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 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.

In fact, incomplete or partial adherence is a major suspected cause of inadequate symptom control and is associated with poorer outcomes, including increased risk of relapse and hospitalization. There are several research methods for tracking patient adherence in adult patients with schizophrenia. A sample of these include the medication possession ratio (MPR), the gap measure, microelectronic monitoring systems, blood and urine tests, patient self-report, and count of missed doses.
The Schizophrenia International Research Society has so called „Biennial Conferences“ every two years. The purpose of these conferences is to spread new findings and new accomplishment in research about schizophrenia. This year, it focuses on new drug development and the status of cutting edge basic and translational research in the field of schizophrenia. More than 1700 researchers from 54 countries attended the 4th Biennial Conference in Florence in 2014. In 2016, it will take place in Florence, Italy. 
In contrast to always considering schizophrenia as a disorder or an illness in our society that occurs due to either genetical predispositions or particular life events, in some societies, schizophrenics are chiefs of a tribe or leaders of certain groups because of their abilities or beliefs. Pointing this out, schizophrenia may not be a disease or a challenge in

Olanzapine has a better effect on negative symptoms compared to other 2nd generation antipsychotic drugs (Werner, 2015), and is one of those second generation antipsychotic medicine approved for the treatment of schizophrenia

Considering the times of data collection, the studies suggest that the use of typical antipsychotics was reducing, while the use

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].