Schizophrenic Adherence: A Case Study

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

Medications are a necessity in dealing with this illness. Anti-psychotics are predominant in the copious amounts of prescriptions that are written for the diagnosed. My experience in the school setting, summer proves to be a season for change as parents use this time to stop or change dosages of medications without doctor advice or approval. Although “regular classes” are not in session, summer school classes can be faced as a challenge when necessary medications have not been taken. I have learned at my practicum site, adult patients in the clinic have taken to self-medicating, adding in marijuana and other street drugs, either in addition or instead of the doctor prescribed medications. Removing one or more drugs from the cocktail that the doctor prescribed can create a windfall of problems for the patients. In stopping and restarting anti-psychotic medication, the patient runs the risk of relapse of symptoms, sometimes worse than they were

Medication is an important treatment for individuals with schizophrenia disorder. Antipsychotics, mood stabilizers and antidepressants are the most popular for treating these individuals (Rubin, Springer, & Trawver, 2010). Because their treatment revolves around medication to help stabilize them, it is important to set up behavioral tailoring interventions. Behavioral tailoring involves cues that remind the individual to take their medication, usually paired with routines (Rubin, Springer, & Trawver, 2010). These routines could be anything from teeth rushing to brushing your hair, and involve set reminders to take the medication (Rubin, Springer, & Trawver, 2010). The adherence to taking the medication has a long-term improvement on their disorder (Rubin, Springer, & Trawver, 2010). Although this is only effective with

Two of the ten studies investigate medications and the effectiveness on the outcome of the individuals studied. Green, Noordsy, Brunette, and O'Keefe (2008) studied theories related to schizophrenia and substance abuse. The authors discuss a number of theories that attempt to explain how the two are related. Although their study was not clear, the authors continue to recommend comprehensive treatment that includes psychosocial and medication treatment in an integrated fashion (Green et al.,

There is a considerable amount of different concepts that can be used when thinking about schizophrenia; unfortunately, since it continues to be a misunderstood disorder, there also exist numerous misconceptions about the schizophrenia. The most common misconceptions deal with the treatment options for schizophrenia, the potential recovery rate, and the ability of people who are diagnosed with the disorder or symptoms to live productive and meaningful lives. Though there are no permanent cures to treat the disease, there are certain medications that help manage the symptoms in order to help people lead healthy and satisfied lives. The recovery rate for the disease is also

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

The management of schizophrenia is complex and requires an “all-encompassing approach” which should be individualized to meet the needs of a particular patient (Schizophrenia Society of Canada, 2016, para. 5).

The article was written by Frederick J. Frese III, Edward L. Knight and Elyn Saks; all trained professionals specialising in schizophrenia. This article focuses on schizophrenia and the history and evolution of treatments that have been used. It looks to shed

Within mental health and illness there is a vast amount of treatment options, medications and interventions to treat numerous psychotic disorders. A somewhat controversial treatment within the mental health field, known as long acting injectable antipsychotics (LAIAs), will be discussed in this argumentative paper. Evidence will be presented on how effective LAIA medication is, when compared to oral forms of antipsychotic medication, and the strengths and limitations of administering them. Perceptions of LAIAs from the view of nurses, health professionals and consumers, as well as the nurse’s role in administering and promoting recovery orientated care for people with a mental illness will also be covered. This essay will not provide a clear view, for or against LAIAs, but rather support both positives and negatives of the use of this medication within the mental health field.

Schizophrenia is not unheard of; there have been many groups that raised the awareness for the disease and institutions that set up clinical trials for people with schizophrenia. Many individuals are affected by it, and they had lived a compromised life. This mental disorder continues to make patients suffer, along with their family and friends. Despite the relevance of this mental disorder in our society, many people have little or no knowledge of it or have many misconceptions about the disorder. As such, this disease will be the topic of interest in this paper. This paper will take into light a recent study regarding schizophrenia that had successfully provided hope that this mental disorder will be cured in the future. The

Schizophrenia is commonly viewed as a hopeless disease where people who have it never recover. While there is no cure for schizophrenia, there are effective treatments that have been proven successful. Medications, recovery-oriented psychosocial treatments and rehabilitation practices are increasingly helping people with

Schizophrenia is a life-long disorder that affects about one percent of the population (Mueser & McGurk, 2004). The cause of this mental illness is still unclear. Studies have suggested that Schizophrenia does not arise from one factor but from a combination of genetic, environmental, and social factors (Liddle, 1987). People diagnosed with Schizophrenia struggle to deal with a multitude of symptoms that make it difficult to function (Mueser & McGurk, 2004). Antipsychotic medications are a popular treatment of the symptoms of Schizophrenia (Mueser & McGurk, 2004). Research is constantly being done to develop these medications to enhance the quality of life of those diagnosed with Schizophrenia.

PhD Bruce Levine says “schizophrenia, an often frightening phenomenon characterized by hallucinations, delusions, incoherent speech, and bizarre behaviors” shows that this is what schizophrenia is like without any medicine helping control these symptoms. He also says “Many mental health professionals, myself included, have seen psychotic relapse among diagnosed schizophrenics who have been ‘medication noncompliant’ ” meaning there are several times where schizophrenics

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.

Later, other classes of typical antipsychotic drugs were used for treatment of schizophrenia, such as butyrophenones and thioxanthones. These drugs were effective methods that transformed the treatment of schizophrenia and decreased the number of hospitalized individuals suffering from the disorder by half. However, twenty-five percent of those suffering from the disorder were unresponsive to the antipsychotic drugs (Adams, C. E., Awad, G. A., Rathbone, J., Thornley, B., & Soares-Weiser, K., 2014). The typical antipsychotic drugs worked best at treating the positive symptoms of schizophrenia but did nothing to treat the negative symptoms of the disorder (which are the lack of motivation and deficit in interpersonal skills). If individuals with schizophrenia discontinue the medication, a total of seventy-eight percent will relapse within a year and ninety-six percent within two years (Gitlin, M., Nuechterlein, K., Subotnik, K. L., Ventura, J., Mintz, J., Fogelson, D. L., . . . Aravagiri, M., 2001). Side effects of typical antipsychotic drugs were significant and would cause many individuals to discontinue their use (Nolen-Hoeksema, 2014). Side effects include grogginess, dry mouth, weight