Brilliant Madness: Living with Manic-Depressive Illnesses - Case Study Example

? Case Study on the book: A brilliant madness: Living with manic-depressive illnesses Topic A Brilliant Madness Background History The book “A Brilliant madness” is a real life story of John Nash a genius Mathematician who suffered from schizophrenia and yet became a Nobel Prize winner. In the book, he was a child who has extraordinary skill in scientific theory and presented his ability even when he was 12 years of age. In John Nash’s later life he gets scholarship in Princeton University where he amazes his peers with Nash theory and also develops symptoms of mental illness at the same time. He was then encountering imaginary characters and start communicating with them. Later in his life he falls in love with a girl and marries her but prove himself a disaster due to his illness . According to (Funaki, 129-38) ‘The support of Nash’s wife Alicia and the few close friends he had been paramount to his recovery and living with schizophrenia”. Due to his illness, he was given treatment for long time but later he withdrew from his medication due to its side effects. Later he gets accustomed to his hallucination and gets rid of it as he gets old. Fortunately, he is then felicitated with Nobel prize which gave him world acclamation This case, the patient is John Nash a mathematician who is in middle age suffering from schizophrenia. As per (Nasar)“Unbeknownst to Nash, the Royal Swedish Academy intended to grant Nash a Nobel Prize for work he had done as the old man's student in 1949, work that turned out to have revolutionary implications for economics”. He is encountering aliens due to his mental illness and believes that he is a part of big Intelligence endeavor. He is a brilliant mathematician who is endowed with scholarship from Princeton University and also was an expert who deciphered for Pentagon an enemy telecommunication code. John Nash during his time at university comes close with a student and falls in love with her. Later he confronts three characters in his life known as Charles, Parcher and Marcee who are all mysterious characters. In his delusional world, Charles is his friend, Parcher a supervisor in Government and Marcee his lover’s niece. After a stay in mental asylum for few years, Nash came back to normal life but as he stops his medicine secretly due to its side effects he slips into schizophrenic encounters with aliens. As time moves further .his disease escalates and Nash tries to drown his child which alerts his wife that he is chronically ill. Nash’s wife attempts to leave house which make him realize all that Parcher, Charles and Marcee are a part of his hallucination. Nash then decides to stop medication and starts to live with his disease with a support from his wife. After many years, he becomes able to eradicate his hallucination and gets Nobel Prize for his mathematical invention of a theory. Presenting the problem Here in this case study, the patient in john Nash, a mathematician who is extremely brilliant and also scholarship winner at Princeton University. John Nash is a mathematician genius who researches on various theories in Princeton University. First sign of Nash’s abnormal symptoms were erratic behavior and imaginary characters he has been visualizing which was noted by his wife. He was indulging in conversation with unseen people and also was acting unrealistic His clinical symptoms were often paranoid which was stable. He had fixed belief on certain false character and situation and they were unrealistic and over imaginative. The imagination of Nash was looking like reality to his senses and he was reacting to it being in the real world. He has partial auditory delusions and had mild depression and lack of motivation to live. John Nash was sleepless and had a hideout where he was recording his entire secret hallucination venture. His wife found that out and concluded that he is mentally sick. As per (Dewey 27)“He then rapidly developed a devastating psychosis characterized by multiple delusions, auditory hallucinations, and complete disruption of his ability to relate normally to associates and family’. He did not sleep well at night and also was communicating to unseen people .John Nash was having an imaginary room mate John in university which was a positive symptom of his disease. His alliance with an intelligence agent Ed Harris is his hallucination symptom. He is also a part of a delusional career where he is an agent who helps government intelligence agency. All these symptoms led him to mental hospital for diagnosis. Diagnosis In the book “The brilliant madness” john Nash being a genius mathematician depicts many irregularities in his behavior which is totally strange from normal human perspective. He portrays clearly the symptoms of schizophrenia. In the book, John Nash is experiencing persecution as hallucination in a conspiracy against American government. He portrays all symptoms of Paranoid schizophrenia which is typical to this disease. He hallucinates that he is a secret agent and is all time busy in working for the government and KGB is supposed to be unrealistic rival. According to (MNT) “An individual with paranoid schizophrenia may spend a disproportionate amount of time thinking up ways of protecting themselves from their persecutors”.He also converse with his imaginary characters which is a strong symptom of the disease. Here John Nash is having unrealistic thoughts, difficulty in managing emotions and relate to people in a disturbing manner. According to DSM IV , John Nash portrays all its symptoms of schizophrenia and his axis dimension can be seen as further: Axis I – Undifferentiated Type According to the Diagnostic Statistics manual John Nash has been classified as being undifferentiated. He depicts disorganized speech and behavior, abnormal brain structure and functioning, hallucinations and delusion. Nash occasionally experience panic attacks, loss of interest to personal grooming and hygiene, withdrawal from society and inability to differentiate real events from unreal ones. He is categorized as undifferentiated because he depicts several symptoms like disorganized behavior , delusion and hallucination. He believes that he is working as a secret agent and is under the scrutiny of spy service and is facing death in case of discrepancies in his venture. He can also be classified as a patient with depression and anxiety. Axis II – Schizophrenia Nash can be confidently categorized as a person under schizotypical personality.Nash showcases more than normal social anxiety many times, he has no close friends or acquaintance, suspiciousness and paranoia and typical disorganized speech. As per (Grohol)‘In this early phase, people with schizophrenia often seem eccentric, unmotivated, emotionless, and reclusive”. Axis III John Nash symptoms emerged late around 30years of age. The first hallucination which john had was the experience of a roommate who moved in with him soon after his career in Princeton University .The thoughts of John was paranoid and delusional.Hehad a feeling that everybody disliked him and led a life in isolation. He connects only with his fictional characters and shows no emotional bonding with real people in life Axis iVJohn is in marriage but does not enjoy marital life. He sleeps less and does not engage in sexual life and leads an unhappy life with his wife. His career is not led well by and he find himself in difficulty with connecting to his students and colleague. He is unable to accept the status of teacher, husband and a father. Axis V The mental functioning of John Nash is highly abnormal and he has been endangering his life and people around him. The irregular behavior is effecting John in a drastic manner and deteriorating him deeply. He is mentally strained because of his sleeplessness and restlessness and also is not keeping himself healthy. Treatment Strategy :John was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and was admitted in hospital for treatment. Nash Should is given anti-psychotic medication for his mental illness. Apart from this, he should also be given insulin shock therapy to improve his condition along with atypical antipsychotics. According to (Smith,)“Atypical means they work in a manner that is significantly different than the previous class of antipsychotic medications”. John must be givenThorazine to calm his erratic symptoms of his mental illness. His treatment in the hospital should be of psychoanalysis nature. As a part of treatment John Nash can be given shock treatment which should last for couple of months. He must be advised tranquilizers and sedations to relax him and induce sleep in him. He must be kept under 24 hrs monitoring to notice any abnormality or irregularity in him. He must be given right combination of nutritious food to keep his health in balance. He should also be prescribed insulin coma therapy and must be under surveillance all the time. The insulin therapy had the capability to avoid tremors, agitation and restlessness in mentally ill patients. With insulin the patients remained calm and also could gain weight and be co-operative with people in treatment and in personal relationship. This treatment is efficient in making Nash less aggressive, less argumentative and less hostile. He can also be subjected to milieu and psycho therapies which can bring back his mental balance. Since Nash showcased mild depression and low self –esteem he must be given mood stabilizer to balance his emotional behavior. References Dewey, Ziegler. "The Story of John Nash – in Book and Movie Form – Is the ‘Stuff of Drama’." Neirology Today 2.7 (2002): 27. Print. Funaki, Tevita. "Nash: Genius with Schizophrenia or Vice Versa?" Pacific Health Dialog 15.2 (2009): 129-38. Print. Grohol, John M. "Atypical Antipsychotic for Schizoprenia." http://psychcentral.com. Psych Central, 2008. Web. 12 July 2013. . MNT, . "What Is Paranoid Schizophrenia? What Causes Paranoid Schizophrenia?." http://www.medicalnewstoday.com. Medical News Today, 30 Apr. 2013. Web. 12 July 2013. . Nasar, Sylvia. "The Lost Years of a Nobel Laureate." http://www.u.arizona.edu. NY Times, 1994. Web. 12 July 2013. . Smith, Melinda. "Schizophrenia: Signs, Types & Causes." http://www.helpguide.org. Help Guide, June 2013. 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