Schizophrenia Treatment and Medications

Medications

Medications are the cornerstone of schizophrenia treatment. But because medications for schizophrenia can cause serious but rare side effects, people with schizophrenia may be reluctant to take them.

Antipsychotic medications are the most commonly prescribed to treat schizophrenia. They're thought to control symptoms by affecting the brain neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin. A person's willingness to cooperate with treatment may affect medication choice. Someone who is uncooperative may need to be given injections instead of taking a pill. Someone who is agitated may need to be calmed initially with benzodiazapine such as lorazepam (Ativan), which may be combined with an antipsychotic.

Atypical antipsychotics
These newer medications are generally preferred, because they pose a lower risk of debilitating side effects than do conventional medications. They include:

• Aripiprazole (Abilify)
• Clozapine (Clozaril)
• Olanzapine (Zyprexa)
• Paliperidone (Invega)
• Quetiapine (Seroquel)
• Risperidone (Risperdal)
• Ziprasidone (Geodon)

The Food and Drug Administration has approved Abilify and Risperdal for use in people ages 13 to 17. Side effects of atypical antipsychotic medications include weight gain, diabetes and high blood cholesterol.

Conventional, or typical, antipsychotics
These medications have frequent and potentially significant neurological side effects, including the possibility of developing a movement disorder (tardive dyskinesia) that may or may not be reversible. This group of medications includes:

• Chlorpromazine (Thorazine)
• Fluphenazine
• Haloperidol
• Perphenazine

These typical antipsychotics are often cheaper than newer counterparts, especially the generic versions, which can be an important consideration when long-term treatment is necessary.

It can take several weeks after first starting a medication to notice an improvement in symptoms. In general, the goal of treatment with antipsychotic medications is to effectively control signs and symptoms at the lowest possible dosage. The psychiatrist may try different medications, different dosages or combinations over time to achieve the desired result. Other medications also may be helpful, such as antidepressants or anti-anxiety medications.

Psychosocial treatments
Although medications are the cornerstone of schizophrenia treatment, once psychosis recedes, psychosocial treatments also are important. These may include:

• Social skills training. This focuses on improving communication and social interactions.
• Family therapy. This provides support and education to families dealing with schizophrenia.
• Vocational rehabilitation and supported employment. This focuses on helping people with schizophrenia find and keep jobs.
• Individual therapy. Learning to cope with stress and identify early warning signs of relapse can help people with schizophrenia manage their illness.

Many communities have programs to help people with schizophrenia with jobs, housing, self-help groups and crisis situations. A case manager or someone on the health care team can help find one. With appropriate treatment, most people with schizophrenia can manage their condition.

Famous Schizophrenics

On my last post about the History of Schizophrenia, It mentioned that one thing that differentiated Schizophrenia from Dementia is that Schizo is more manageable and curable than the more dangerous Dementia that deteriorates a person so much to the point that Statistics say only 1 out of 10 cases of Dementia have positive results. So it's a good thing that you have Schizo and not Dementia. Now here's some good news I have a list of famous people who were diagnosed of Schizo and yet they still made it big in their lives.

Tom Harrell, Jazz Musician

Meera Popkin, Broadway Star

John Nash - Mathematician/Nobel Prize Winner( The person portrayed in the movie "The   Beautiful Mind" starring Russel Crowe)

Albert Einstein's son - Eduard Einstein

Dr. James Watson's son (Dr. Watson is co-discover of DNA and Nobel Prize winner)

Alan Alda's Mother (Alan Alda is the famous TV actor from the series MASH)

Andy Goram - Scottish Soccer Player/Goal Keeper

Lionel Aldridge - Superbowl-winning Football Player

Peter Green, Guitarist for the band Fleetwood Mac

Syd Barrett of the band Pink Floyd

Alexander "Skip" Spence and Bob Mosley - both members of the 1960's rock group Moby Grape (and Jefferson Airplane for Skip Spence)

Roger Kynard "Roky" Erickson, of the Austin-based 1960's group TheThirteenth Floor Elevators

Joe Meek - 1960's British record producer

James Beck Gordon (Jim Gordon) - James Gordon had been, quite simply, one of the greatest drummers of his time

Charles "Buddy" Bolden - Jazz Musician

Antoin Artaud - Dramatist, Artist

Mary Todd Lincoln, wife of Abraham Lincoln (past-President of the United States)

Vaclav Nijinsky, Famous Russian Dancer

Jack Kerouac, Author, was diagnosed with Schizophrenia

And this just goes to prove that even with Schizophrenia... Your lives are not over and you can still do great things! But first you have to get treated first and my next post will be about how to treat Schizophrenia.

The History of Schizophrenia

          Accounts of a schizophrenia-like syndrome are thought to be rare in the historical record before the 1800s, although reports of irrational, unintelligible, or uncontrolled behavior were common. A detailed case report in 1797 concerning James Tilly Matthews, and accounts by Phillipe Pinel published in 1809, are often regarded as the earliest cases of the illness in the medical and psychiatric literature.Schizophrenia was first described as a distinct syndrome affecting teenagers and young adults by Bénédict Morel in 1853, termed démence précoce (literally 'early dementia'). The term dementia praecox was used in 1891 by Arnold Pick in a case report of a psychotic disorder. In 1893 Emil Kraepelin introduced a broad new distinction in the classification of mental disorders between dementia praecox and mood disorder(termed manic depression and including both unipolar and bipolar depression). Kraepelin believed that dementia praecox was primarily a disease of the brain, and particularly a form of dementia, distinguished from other forms of dementia such as Alzheimer's disease which typically occur later in life.

          The word schizophrenia—which translates roughly as "splitting of the mind" and comes from the Greek roots schizein (σχίζειν, "to split") andphrēn, phren- (φρήν, φρεν-, "mind")—was coined by Eugen Bleuler in 1908 and was intended to describe the separation of function between personality, thinking, memory, and perception. Bleuler described the main symptoms as 4 A's: flattened Affect, Autism, impaired Associationof ideas and Ambivalence. Bleuler realized that the illness was not a dementia, as some of his patients improved rather than deteriorated, and thus proposed the term schizophrenia instead. Treatment was revolutionized in the mid-1950s with the development and introduction of chlorpromazine.

Molecule of chlorpromazine (trade name Thorazine), which revolutionized treatment of schizophrenia in the 1950s

          In the early 1970s, the diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia was the subject of a number of controversies which eventually led to the operational criteria used today. It became clear after the 1971 US-UK Diagnostic Study that schizophrenia was diagnosed to a far greater extent in America than in Europe. This was partly due to looser diagnostic criteria in the US, which used the DSM-II manual, contrasting with Europe and its ICD-9. David Rosenhan's 1972 study, published in the journal Science under the title "On being sane in insane places", concluded that the diagnosis of schizophrenia in the US was often subjective and unreliable. These were some of the factors leading to the revision not only of the diagnosis of schizophrenia, but the revision of the whole DSM manual, resulting in the publication of the DSM-III in 1980.

          The term schizophrenia is commonly misunderstood to mean that affected persons has a "split personality". Although some people diagnosed with schizophrenia may hear voices and may experience the voices as distinct personalities, schizophrenia does not involve a person changing among distinct multiple personalities. The confusion arises in part due to the literal interpretation of Bleuler's term schizophrenia. The first known misuse of the term to mean "split personality" was in an article by the poet T. S. Eliot in 1933.

Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia (pronounced /ˌskɪtsɵˈfrɛniə/ or /ˌskɪtsɵˈfriːniə/) is a mental disorder characterized by a disintegration of thought processes and of emotional responsiveness. It most commonly manifests as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking, and it is accompanied by significant social or occupational dysfunction. The onset of symptoms typically occurs in young adulthood, with a global lifetime prevalence of about 0.3–0.7%. Diagnosis is based on observed behavior and the patient's reported experiences.


A simpler definition of Schizophrenia is that it  is a mental disorder that makes it difficult to tell the difference between real and unreal experiences, to think logically, to have normal emotional responses, and to behave normally in social situations.


Causes of Schizophrenia include Genetic, Psychological and Environmental Factors. Risk factors that increase the likelihood of a person to acquire this mental disorder include: infections during pregnancy. Difficult life circumstances during childhood, like the early loss of a parent, parental poverty, bullying, witnessing parental violence; emotional, sexual, or physical abuse; physical or emotional neglect; and insecure attachment.


Signs and Symptoms of Schizophrenia include:

• Beliefs that have no basis in reality (delusions)
• Hearing, seeing, feeling, smelling, or tasting things that have no basis in reality (hallucinations)
• Disorganized speech
• Disorganized behaviors
• Catatonic behaviors
• Inhibition of facial expressions
• Lack of speech
• Lack of motivation

SO LET ME ASK YOU.... Do you have a history of  the said causes of Schizophrenia? Or worse have you experienced the said Signs and Symptoms of Schizo? If YES then keep postedt because YOU may have Schizo! But don't worry I'm here to help so my next post will be about "How to diagnose and Treat Schizophrenia"