Effectiveness of Antipsychotic Drugs - Essay Example

These individuals even suffer the issue of failing to talk in a sensible manner and may face difficulties in telling others about their thoughts. The disorder is degenerative in nature and tends to worsen over time and it is quite commonly believed that treatment of this disorder is near to impossible. There are many individuals who have been successfully treated with this disease after they have suffered for years from this disease. These individuals have undergone several treatment methods which have ultimately lead to their full recovery from the disorder.

It is very difficult to treat the patients of schizophrenia, but several individuals who were even suffering from acute schizophrenia have been able to cure themselves with the use of medication and different treatments. The most effective drugs that are used to treat patients suffering from schizophrenia are antipsychotic drugs. The main aim of prescribing and using these drugs is to reduce the chances of the occurrence of episodes that are psychotic in nature and are experienced by patients suffering from schizophrenia.

But medications alone have proven to be quite unreliable in treating schizophrenia patients. These drugs even have severe side effects and most of the time people discontinue taking drugs because of these side effects. For example, a study was conducted by Lieberman and in this study, the authors identified that 74% of their sample stopped taking antipsychotic drugs to treat schizophrenia because they were suffering from severe side effects such as excessive weight loss (Lieberman, 2005). Along with the use of antipsychotic drugs, patients need to undergo different therapies in order to cure themselves of the disorder.

One of the therapies that have gained immense recognition for even curing acute schizophrenia is recognized as cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). The therapy of CBT is used in order to provide empowerment to patients and make them feel that they are in control and they can recover from their mental health issue of schizophrenia. Researches have proven that CBT alone as well as CBT with the use of antipsychotic drugs have helped individuals in treating their mental disorder. For example, a study conducted by Pilling et al.

helped in identifying that those patients that went through CBT were less likely to quit the therapy as well as other treatments (Pilling, 2002). This means that CBT helps in changing the negative mental state of the patients suffering from Schizophrenia and they started believing that they can be cured and due to this their dropout rate from treatment declined. Another treatment method that has proven to have a profound effect in helping patients experiencing schizophrenia is family care and when CBT and family care treatment methods are used in a combination, the probability of full recovery of the patient's increases.

Pilling et al. even identified that family intervention helped in decreasing the incidences of psychotic episodes experienced by schizophrenia patients and even decreased the chances of patients dropping out of CBT as well as drug treatments (Pilling, 2002).