Treatment For Schizophrenia Research Paper

Schizophrenia is a disorder that is characterized by a broken thought process and poor emotional responses. Typical symptoms of this disorder include delusions, paranoia, hallucinations, social dysfunctions,

Today, the hallmark symptom of schizophrenia is psychosis, meaning a patient experiences hallucination and delusions. The hallucinations usually manifest as the patient hearing voices inside their head. With delusions, patients think that a person in trying to read their mind, control their thoughts, or that someone is trying to hurt them (“Schizophrenia,” n.d.). With these types of symptoms, it makes it very difficult for a patients to manage their emotions, make decisions, think clearly, as well as live successfully independently (“Schizophrenia – Fact Sheet,” n.d.). For example, often times patients with schizophrenia do not make sense when they talk or just sit for a very long time without talking at all (“Schizophrenia,” n.d.). This

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder often characterized by abnormal social behaviour and failure to recognize what is real. Common symptoms include false beliefs, unclear or confused thinking, auditory hallucinations, reduced social engagement and emotional expression, and inactivity. A person with schizophrenia often hears voices, experiences delusions and hallucinations and may believe thoughts, feelings and actions are controlled or shared by someone else.

The Bible does not speak explicitly of schizophrenia, or really have any concept of how mental illness is perceived today. It does, however refer to the mentally ill as being “demon possessed”, because God attributes abnormal thinking to the influence of the devil. Mathew 4:24 speaks of Jesus healing someone of mental illness.

Researchers believe that dopamine plays an important part in schizophrenia. The goal of conventional antipsychotic drug therapy is to reduce the amount of dopamine, or the amount of dopamine receptor sites. They are dopamine antagonists

It is not hard to find depictions of people living with poorly treated schizophrenia. The first treatment for schizophrenia was discovered 50 years ago by accident and treatment has remained largely unchanged since then (Moghaddam & Javitt, 2012). The documentary film from 1996, “Back from Madness: A struggle for sanity” in part depicts a woman named Naomi, who in many ways exhibits the traditional onset of symptoms and subsequent treatment. She was a college aged woman at the time, who seemingly randomly began “hearing voices from the sky”. She chose to seek help and was prescribed clozapine, which is considered to be the most effective antipsychotic currently on the market (Moghaddam & Javitt, 2012). When this treatment was shown to be uneffective, Naomi

In 1955, antipsychotic medications were introduced to help mental disorders. These medications are usually taken orally in which help relieve symptoms for periods of days. The misuse or abuse of the medications are low. There are three generations of antipsychotic medications. The first generation is known for reducing hallucinations and delusions, but not affecting problems like disorientation or depression. An example would be chlorpromazine, brand name being Thorazine. Some negative side effects of taking the first generation drugs are Parkinson’s-like symptoms, tardive dyskinesia, and weight gain. Next, the second generation drugs minimized the outcome of the individual getting Parkinson’s-like symptoms. An example of this generation would be Clozaril. “A unique feature of Clozaril is the 1 to 2 percent chance of developing a potentially lethal blood disease called agranulocytosis” (Levinthal 282). This disease decreases white blood cells and affects the immune system. If early signs of this disease start to appear the patient will stop taking Clozaril and recover. Lastly, the third generation has shown to be the most effective on schizophrenia. Abilify is an example of this generation drug. It does not have a risk of Parkinson’s, tardive dyskinesia, or diabetes. Abilify blocks specific serotonin receptors in which prevents negative side effects from happening. These different

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

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.

Schizophrenia is universally considered to function on a neurological level, with various studies claiming that several different types of neurotransmitters are thought to contribute to the manifestation of schizophrenia in the brain (Carlton, 1984). These findings have encouraged the development of various hypotheses for the cause of schizophrenia, one of these includes the dopamine theory (Carlton, 1984). The theory originated out of research on the dopamine-blocking actions of initial antipsychotic drugs (Moncrieff, 2009). Pharmacological studies researching the use of drugs to treat schizophrenia found that, drugs which decrease dopaminergic activity in the brain such as, Clozapine and Haloperidol, are considered to be antipsychotics, whilst

Antipsychotic medications optimizes the patient’s quality of life by ameliorating the symptoms of schizophrenia. The Patient could experiences a social deficits due to their disabled significant functioning in the community, such as “performance of work tasks, social interaction difficulties with other and motivational

Treatment of schizophrenia may vary according to what clinicians believe to be its causes. For example, some believe (and this is backed by evidence) that the condition is caused by over activity of the dopamine system, so that the person experiences too much stimulation. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter, so that in effect too much activity is occurring in the brain. Clinicians who believe this is the case are likely to use drug therapies to correct this over activity, and will use antipsychotic drugs.

To start there is not a cure for schizophrenia but some symptoms can be treated with antipsychotic medication. This type of medication is intended to significantly reduce and possibly stop hallucinations, delusions, paranoia and disordered thinking. There isn’t a specific antipsychotic medication recommended to try first but factors that come into play when deciding which one to pick are cost, availability, effectiveness, side effects and adherence likelihood. There are two types of medications that can be taken. Typical and Atypical. Typical is the oldest of the antipsychotic medications and the effectiveness of it really works but it comes with a number of side effects that could make the quality of life difficult. Some of the side effects are tremors, temporary paralysis, restlessness and pacing, extremely slow movements, muscle spasms and changes in breathing and heart rate. Atypical

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).

The first anti-psychotic was chlorpromazine (branded Thorazine), and this was followed with other anti-psychotics like Prolixin and Haldol. These first-generation medications are better at treating the positive symptoms than the negative symptoms, and often comes with harsh side effects such as weight gain, parkinsonism, and tardive dyskinesia, a condition that involves repetitive, involuntary bodily movements. Second-generation anti-psychotics, such as clozapine, Risperdal and Olanzapine don't have as many severe neurological side effects such as tardive dyskinesia, but they still have other side effects like weight gain and a compromised immune system from low levels of white blood cells. (“Drugs to treat schizophrenia”, WebMD)