Symptoms And Treatment
Schizophrenia is a chronic brain disorder, affecting almost 20 millions people world wide. Patients of Schizophrenia experience Auditory hallucination, Visual hallucination, delusions, disorganized speech and thinking patterns and lack of motivation. Schizophrenics, sometimes, found talking to themselves as if they were talking to someone. In paranoia cases , patients assume that someone is hatching conspiracy against them and wants to kill them.
The causes of Schizophrenia are complex and are not fully understood. These are similar like other psychiatric disorders; genetics and family history, environmental factors, and changes in brain chemistry such as Imbalance in Dopamine and Serotonin Hormones.
The National Institutes of Mental Health(NIMH) estimates approximately 1.1% of American adults will be diagnosed with schizophrenia at some point in their life. Schizophrenia can occur at all ages but tends to occur in the late teens to the early 20s for men, and the late 20s to early 30s for women. Experiencing schizophrenia at ages younger than 12 or older than 40 is very uncommon.
Symptoms:
Positive symptoms: It Includes Auditory Hallucinations( hearing voices that are not audible to others surrounding persons), Visual Hallucinations(seeing Images that do not exist for others), paranoia , distorted perceptions, beliefs and behaviors.
Negative symptoms: A loss or a decrease in appetite, lack of motivation(Avolition), speak, express emotion and Inability to find pleasure (Anhedonia).
Disorganized symptoms: Confused or disordered thinking and speech Patterns, trouble with logical thinking and sometimes bizarre behavior or abnormal movements.
Cognition symptoms: is another area to be affected in schizophrenia leading to problems with attention, concentration and memory, and to declining educational performance.
Treatment: Schizophrenia is a chronic disease, having swear intensity and the person suffering with it, start doing abnormal behavior. It is taken as a social stigma and the patient is treated as insane. Due to this, in most of the cases, family members hide the facts. In number of cases, sufferers are outcasted, resulting in making the case worse. Sometimes, It is assumed as a supernatural phenomena and people caught in superstitious activities to exorcise the evil spirits in patients. In this way we spoil our time as well as money without any use.
First of all , Schizophrenia should be taken as a disease not as supernatural phenomena or social stigma. Proper care with patience is required to the patient instead of making one feel low. Though there is not a proper treatment of it , yet with medication and psychosocial support, the Intensity of it can be reduced to some extent. Recovery also depends on how early we recognize it and visit to doctors.
Antipsychotic Medication:
Antipsychotic medicine can reduce the intensity of psychotic symptoms. They are usually taken daily in pill or liquid forms. Doctor can conduct blood work on regular basis with purpose to know if applied medicine is working properly or have any side effects . Patients have to be in regular connected with doctors.
Psychosocial Treatments
Behavioral therapy, behavioral skills training, supported employment, may help address the negative and cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia. A combination of these therapies and antipsychotic medication is common. . They can help people pursue their life goals, such as attending school, working, or forming relationships. Individuals who participate in regular psychosocial treatment are less likely to be hospitalized.
Family Education and Support
Educational programs for family members and friends offer instructions about schizophrenia symptoms and treatments, and strategies for assisting the person with the illness. In this programme special training is given to nears and dears so that they could help patient recover and be part of mainstream.
As we know, Schizophrenia is chronic disease with no specific causes and having complex symptoms. So, with single approach, It is hard to treat the patients. To bring the patient in mainstream, holistic approach is required Including; Antipsychotic medication, Psychosocial treatment and Training programme of family members etc. It (Schizophrenia) should be taken as disease with social acceptance. Love and patience are tools which could help rehabilitation of patient. In some cases , It is found that patients kept chained or outcasted from society, this is wrong approach. Attention should be paid equally as we do in other diseases.We can contact to the institutions, working on this subject like; Schizophrenia Research Foundation (SCARF) and The National Institutes of Mental Health(NIMH)
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