preview

Symptoms And Treatment Of Schizophrenia

Better Essays
Open Document
Antipsychotics And Treating Schizophrenia Mental health nursing has been around for many years. There are many individuals with different types of mental health issues. Psychosis is an umbrella branch of disorders such as delusional disorder, schizoaffective disorder, and schizophrenia. Schizophrenia has an onset during early adulthood or late adolescence. Every individual with schizophrenia experiences the disease differently depending on the type of schizophrenia and the treatment given. For confidentiality reasons, a pseudonym will be used in this paper as schizophrenia and its treatment is elaborated and looked at in the life of a patient named Mr. H.
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is used to classify and describe a wide range of…show more content…
Schizophrenia usually starts with a high-risk period of thought disturbances or unusual ideas. Along with that, individuals experience negative symptoms such as social withdrawal, anhedonia, and low mood (Pringle, 2013, p. 505). These negative symptoms can lead to poor quality of life and are difficult to treat. In the acute phase, which begins up to two years later, positive symptoms of schizophrenia are “hallucinations (changes in perception involving any of the five sensory modalities) and delusions (unusual thoughts or beliefs)” (Pringle, 2013, p. 505). Along with positive and negative symptoms, there are cognitive symptoms and first rank symptoms. Cognitive symptoms include deficits in attention, verbal and visual learning, executive function, social cognition, processing speed, and working memory. First-rank symptoms include somatic passivity, delusional perceptions, voices commenting on the patient’s action, audible thought, withdrawal thought, voices arguing, and passivity of impulse, volition, and affect (Giannopoulos, Carroll, Ebmeier, 2014, p. 12). These symptoms help diagnose schizophrenia. For some individuals antipsychotic medications were needed and for others, symptoms resolved quickly.
Intervention
When it comes to treatment for schizophrenia, there are many different antipsychotic medications that can be administered to patients.
Antipsychotics generally act by blocking dopamine D2 receptors. Treatment of schizophrenia with
Get Access
Related
Get Access