Schizophrenia’s Management and Treatment

The person I chose came from a famous novel and has schizophrenia. According to Mayo Clinic “Schizophrenia is a severe brain disorder in which people interpret reality abnormally. Schizophrenia may result in some combination of hallucinations, delusions, and extremely disordered thinking and behavior. Contrary to popular belief, schizophrenia is not a split personality or multiple personality. The word "schizophrenia" does mean "split mind," but it refers to a disruption of the usual balance of emotions and thinking. Schizophrenia is a chronic condition, requiring lifelong treatment.”(Schizophrenia, August 2014). The individual would start showing signs of reduced pleasure in life, difficulty participating in activities, barely speaking,

Schizophrenia occurs in people from all cultures and from all walks of life. Schizophrenia is a chronic brain disorder that affects a small portion of the population in the world. When schizophrenia is active there are many different symptoms that can appear. Some symptoms can include delusions, hallucinations, trouble with thinking and concentration, and lack of motivation. When these symptoms are treated, most people with schizophrenia will improve over time with treatment. With the different studies we are able to see how schizophrenia works in different ways. The different ways being what is happening in the brain when a person has schizophrenia. Along with the different treatments from counseling to medication what works better.

Schizophrenia is a neurological disorder that affects the cognitive functions of an individual. The cause of this illness is unknown, but there are several theories of how an individual may acquire schizophrenia. Because there are many symptoms of the disease and because the symptoms can vary quite dramatically among several individuals and even within the same individual over time, the diagnosis of schizophrenia can be quite difficult.

Biological treatments arise from the medical model of abnormal behaviour, which considers mental disorder to be an illness of disease resulting from underlying biological factors. Most people with schizophrenia receive some form of drug therapy.

(Salinger 173). Holden has molded his life around this fantasy and fails to realize that

Welfare and Institutions code section 5008 (h)(1) (A) defines the term “gravely disabled” as a condition in which a person, as a result of a mental disorder, is unable to provide for his or her basic personal needs for food, clothing, or shelter. One of the most difficult of these mental illnesses to treat is Schizophrenia.

Imagine hallucinating things that are not actually happening, and not being able to explain it to anyone else with the fear of being called psycho. “The prevalence rate of schizophrenia is approximately one percent of the U.S. adult population, representing more than two million people, roughly uniform across cultures throughout the world” (Levinthal 280). With schizophrenia becoming a more prevailing disorder, is it possible to find a cure? Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that causes emotional, behavioral, and cognitive interferences including withdrawals from reality and their own perceptions. The term converts to the phrase split mind, which often misrepresents individuals with this disorder. Many perceive it to mean that people with

Sean is a 19- year-old single African American male with an extensive history of emotional and behavioral problems. These problems include excessive showering and head washing, rituals for dressing and studying, as well as compulsive need for specific item placement. Sean’s behaviors have become so consuming that he withdrew from college his freshman year. His condition has been declining over the past few years. He continually isolates himself from his friends and family, refuses meals, and neglects his personal appearance. While attending school, Sean’s behaviors had become so time-consuming and debilitating that he feared his hygiene rituals would interfere with his studying and he therefore quit showering all together. In addition to not

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

Despite the advances of antipsychotic medications, schizophrenia is a leading cause of global disability associated with high rates of hospitalizations, depression, and suicide attempts (Statistics Canada, 2015, para. 5). According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) (2016), “schizophrenia is a chronic and severe mental disorder that affects how a person thinks, feels, and behaves” (para. 1). Additionally, individuals with schizophrenia may experience varied symptoms including: delusions and hallucinations; movement and thought disorders; flat affect and decreased pleasure; and impaired attention and memory (NIMH, 2016, para. 4, 5, 6). The purpose of this paper is to examine the impacts of nonpharmacological interventions in the population of adults with schizophrenia. Several modalities of nonpharmacological treatments have been examined for efficacy, however our research focuses specifically on the following categories: (a) psychoeducation and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), (b) physical fitness and yoga programs, (c) combined pharmacological and nonpharmacological therapies, (d) case management and community services, and (e) technology and relational agents.

Risperidone has been utilized as an atypical antipsychotic and prescribed since 1994. It is mainly used for treatment in those with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and irritability in autism spectrum disorder. Risperidone has multiple types of administration and the most common is oral tablet form. This can be used in adults or adolescents, but is closely monitored when used with children. The side effects for Risperidone should be taken into consideration by both prescribers and prescribed. Finally, Risperidone should not be used while pregnant or nursing due to potential side effects carried from mother to child. This second generation antipsychotic has been used for many years and will continue to be prescribed in practice.

Schizophrenia is a chronic brain disorder that affects more than one percent of the population. When schizophrenia is active, symptoms can include delusions, hallucinations, trouble with thinking and concentration, and lack of motivation. However, when these symptoms are treated properly, a large portion of those diagnosed will greatly improve over time.

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).

Approximately 22% of the American population suffers from some kind of mental disorder at any given time. (Passer and Smith, 2004) Schizophrenia is one of the most serious of these mental disorders, and there are many different kinds of treatment. While all mental disorders offer diagnosis and treatment challenges, few are more challenging than schizophrenia. It is both bizarre and puzzling, and has been described as “one of the most challenging disorders to treat effectively.” (Passer and Smith, 2004, 534)

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