Treatment Of Schizophreni Treatment For Schizophrenia Essay

According to NAMI (), schizophrenia is a long term mental illness that interferes with a person’s ability to think clearly, make decisions, and relate to others, impairing a person from functioning to their full potential when left untreated. For these persons affected, it is many times difficult to distinguish what is real from what is not. “Unfortunately, no single simple course of treatment exists.” Research has linked schizophrenia to a multitude of possible causes” (NAMI).

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

This paper defines schizophrenia from a biological and psychological perspective and also provides treatment to help combat symptoms of schizophrenia. This paper has three important contributions. First, by defining and expanding on schizophrenia from a biological perspective, I can identify the nature related predispositions. After expanding from a biological approach, secondly, I will analyze schizophrenia from a psychological aspect by determining if there is any environment or nurturing externals that can result to schizophrenia. Lastly, I will provide treatment details and also reveal early signs to schizophrenia. This paper is important because schizophrenia is an epic mental disease and it is crucially important to bring awareness to the public of how we can limit the illness. It is unclear whether schizophrenia have only a biological background or psychological background, but what was discovered is that both contribute to schizophrenia. Positive and negative treatment can be combatted undergoing pharmaceutical and psychotherapy,

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.

The treatment of schizophrenia varies. Many patients are treated with drug. Current treatment modalities are somatic and psychotherapeutic which were performed in many different ways that associates with drug treatment. The somatic treatments for schizophrenia are all based on drug therapy and pharmacology (de Meduna). Of course, there have been previous approaches of treatment. Psychosurgery, which had been rejected, includes electro convulsive therapies, insulin coma, and various treatment that involved immersion in hot or cold baths. The pharmacological therapies currently applied all have scientific proof of their effectiveness, although the results of these studies have also provided that when drugs are stopped, relapse may occur

Although there is controversy in regards to which type of treatment is most successful in regards to initial episodes of schizophrenia disorder, there are also studies looking into whether or not there are issues associated with receiving no treatment at all. Ho et al. (2003) created a study to determine the effect of a first episode of schizophrenia remaining undetected and untreated for more than one year. It was hypothesized by Ho et al. (2003) that if psychosis has toxicity to the human body, psychosis could have detrimental effects on cognitive functioning and the structure of the brain if left untreated. This study included 156 subjects, all who had not had more than three months of previous antipsychotic treatment and all of which were in the midst of their first episode of schizophrenia. The mean amount of time in which the participants went untreated for psychotic symptoms at the beginning of the experiment was 74.3 weeks. Ho et al. (2003) stated that participants were put through a battery of thirty six cognitive tests in which their scores were scored against other standardized scores. The participants were divided into two groups around the median amount of time in which they were untreated since the onset of their symptoms, which was thirteen weeks (Ho et al., 2003). Neurocognitive tests included tests of verbal, memory and motor skills. Ho et al. (2003) stated that in comparison to each other, the two groups did not differ in any of the cognitive categories

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized with severe, chronic, and potentially disabling thought disorder (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Antipsychotic drugs are the primary use of treatment for schizophrenic disorders (Kane, 1987). Some of the common used psychotropic medications used to treat schizophrenia are: haloperidol, risperidone, aripiprazole, olanzapine, trifluoperazine, perphenazine, quetiapine, thioridazine, chlorpromazine, and clozapine. Antipsychotics like FGAs and SGAs are can be administered orally, in the form of a pill or liquid, or intravenously, by injections. Like with oral forms of antipsychotics, injections offer side effects too. These side effects vary but are very much alike to those of the matching drugs in oral form, though added mild or infrequent injection-related side effects can occur such as: pain, skin thickening, and nodules (Haddad & Fleischhacker, 2011). Antipsychotics administered by injection is one approach to managing nonadherence, although this approach does not work for all patients. Additionally, a proportion of patients who start on injections, later, do not continue with treatment. One study found more than half of patients who began risperidone (Risperdal) injections, stopped after 6 months of treatment (Taylor et al., 2004). With injections, patient nonadherence can be due to the personal characteristics, dosage range, initial startup, administration of the drug, and monitoring. The dosage range for each

Over the years, experiments have produced evidence to suggest that dopamine plays a role in the development of Schizophrenia (Howes, McCutcheon, & Stone, 2015). Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that is produced in the substantia nigra and ventral tegmental regions of the brain. The belief that dopamine was involved in Schizophrenia arose after multiple studies performed with compounds produced an increase in extracellular concentrations of dopamine (Lieberman, Kane, & Alvir, 1987). The patients that were administered these compounds had similar symptoms to those observed from patients who were diagnosed with Schizophrenia (Lieberman et al., 1987).

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.

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)

Schizophrenia (SZ) is a psychological brain disorder, which expresses the manifestations in the form of abnormal mental functions and disturbed behavior. It affects about 1% of the adult population among different ethnic groups (Bromet and Fennig, 1999). Mainly begins at the age of mid second through the third decade of a person’s life (A Lewis et al., 2000). Schizophrenia patients have complex clinical features that comprises positive symptoms (e.g. hallucinations, delusions, disordered thoughts and speech), negative symptoms (e.g. inappropriate emotions and depression) and cognitive symptoms (e.g. deficits in attention and working memory and learning disabilities) (Otte et al., 2009). Patients with the symptoms anxiety and depression may

Assessment of schizophrenia in a clinical setting has been limited for decades by the accepted conceptual model that psychological symptoms are the main problem rather than a holistic viewpoint. Schizophrenia is a multifaceted disorder that expresses systemically, not just locally to the brain in the form of psychosis (Kirkpatrick, Miller, García-Rizo, & Fernandez-Egea, 2014). In order to evaluate the inconsistency with the standard model, a review of schizophrenia, how to clinically address the disorder as a systemic condition, and the important factors to convey to the patient and their family about symptom treatment will be presented.

“Please hear this: There are not ‘Schizophrenics’ There are people with Schizophrenia.” (Elyn Saks). How much do you actually know about Schizophrenia and the people who have it? You may know that it is a mental disorder in your brain that affects function and fragmentation. What so many of you do not know is the way it is diagnosed, how it is treated, the different types of Schizophrenia, and of course so much more. What I will be covering in this paper will be the different types, the process of the diagnosis, treatment you can receive, causes, possible complications, history and a variety of different topics you most likely did not know were involved with Schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a mental disorder in your brain that can be both fascinating and frightening.

Per MentalHelp.net, schizophrenia is rare with approximately one-percent of the worldwide population and 1.2 percent of the population of the United States suffering from the disease as of 2009. Accurate statistics are difficult to obtain because many sufferers do not seek help. Symptoms typically – but not always – present in teen years with different peak times for females and males. Females have two peak times of vulnerability – mid- to late twenties and again around 40 – whereas males have one between the ages of 18 and 25. (Nemade & Dombect, 2009)

However, as highlighted by Videbeck et al (2014), the therapeutic mechanism of action is only partially understood. Typical antipsychotic drugs such as chlorpromazine, haloperidol, act as antagonist at dopamine receptors (D2, D3, D4), which are situated in central pathways of the brain. Brennan & Gamble (2006), highlighted reports supporting the clinical potency of typical antipsychotics which is determined by the extent to which they block dopamine receptors. This action of blocking D2 receptors lead to effective treatment of target symptoms of schizophrenia but induces many extrapyramidal symptoms (EPS) such as Parkinson, acute dystonic reactions, akathisia, tardive dyskinesia and worsen negative symptoms in some patients. In as much as blocking the dopamine receptor is acknowledged explanation of the EPS of typical antipsychotic drugs, some controversy exists in relation to extension of the mechanism to explain the antipsychotic effect. The core controversy is based on the inability to link the relationship between EPS and therapeutic effects. Some typical antipsychotic drugs have shown fewer parkinsonian effects than would have been expected from their clinical efficacy and explanation to this is that such drugs have in built antiparkinsonian as they have high anticholinergic potency. According to Crow (1980), considering this explanation makes the relationship between dopamine antagonism and the therapeutic effectiveness more compelling. Brennan & Gamble (2006), cited Gournay & Gray (1998), highlighting that about 30% of clients with schizophrenia do not respond to typical antipsychotics or experience severe EPS, this means that the rest 70% respond to typical antipsychotic drugs and may experience