Schizophrenia Medication Treatment - Essay Example

Schizophrenia is usually diagnosed in people around the ages 17-35 and is found equally in both genders. This illness appears earlier in men than in women. In men, the illness usually appears when they are in their late teens or early twenties while in women it appears in the late twenties and early thirties. Schizophrenic people are usually disabled and have difficulties performing everyday tasks and are usually unable to hold down a job. It is important to note here that patients of schizophrenia may not always look ill outwardly.

Schizophrenic people suffer mainly from a state called psychosis; it is a state in which a person’s perceptions of reality are distorted. Researchers have so far been unable to pinpoint the causes of schizophrenia. In some cases an abnormal brain structure or abnormal brain chemistry causes this problem and in some cases family history is a more important factor. It is important to note here that genetically, schizophrenia is not passed from one generation to the next but the disorder is understood to run in families.

Symptoms of schizophrenia can be grouped into two major types: Positive and Negative. Based on the kind of symptoms that a person has, schizophrenia has been divided into five major types: Paranoid schizophrenia Disorganized schizophrenia Catatonic schizophrenia Undifferentiated-type schizophrenia Residual schizophrenia (Dryden-Edwards) Paranoid-type schizophrenia is identified by the presence of positive symptoms such as auditory hallucinations and delusions. The patient however is able to function normally as far as intellectual functions are concerned.

Patients who suffer from paranoid-type schizophrenia can display argumentativeness, aloofness, anger, and anxiety. (Dryden-Edwards) Disorganized-type schizophrenia is identified by unorganized and hard to understand speech and behaviors, and inappropriate emotions. The patients’ disorganized behavior causes them problems in everyday tasks such as showering, eating and dressing up. (Dryden-Edwards) Catatonic-type schizophrenia is identified by disturbances of movement. Patients who suffer from this form of the disease may display catatonic type movements i.e. they might keep themselves completely immobile or they might move all over the place.

They may not speak for hours and hours, or they may repeat anything over and over for a long while. Such behavioral tendencies put them at high risk because it severely weakens their ability to take care of themselves. (Dryden-Edwards) Undifferentiated-type schizophrenia is identified by a presence of a mishmash of some symptoms seen in all the other types of schizophrenia but not enough of any one of them to define the condition as a particular type. (Dryden-Edwards) Residual-type schizophrenia is identified by an absence of positive symptoms in a person who in the past is known to have suffered from at least one episode of schizophrenia.

This phase may represent a transition between a complete episode and complete cutback, or it may continue for years without any further psychotic episodes.(Dryden-Edwards) Medications for schizophrenia are referred to as antipsychotics because they help in decreasing the intensity of the psychotic symptoms. It should be noted here that not all medications that are used to treat this disorder in adults have been approved for use in treating children who suffer from this disorder.