Schizophrenia: Symptoms and Treatments - Essay Example

?Schizophrenia: Symptoms and Treatments Schizophrenia is one of the most common forms of mental disorder today. Boyle (2002, p. 3) s that about 2.4 million Americans are diagnosed with this mental health condition each year. Some researchers have also predicted that one in every 100 people will suffer from schizophrenia in their lifetime. Even though the disease can affect an individual at any stage in life, it mostly affects the youths between the ages of 15 to 35 years of age, with men and women equally affected. The disease also affects people from all the races and ethnic communities in almost equal measure, according to Tsuang, Faraone, and Glatt (2011, p. 16). Schizophrenia has remained one of the most feared mental health conditions throughout history. History shows that, initially, people believed that the evil spirit possessed those suffering from Schizophrenia. This caused a lot of fear in the family affected by the health condition. In most cases, victims would be isolated from the rest of the society by locking them up in a room. Even though remarkable improvements have been made as regards its cause, symptoms, and treatments, Schizophrenia still bewilders the public and health professionals. Williams (2012, p. 14) argued that most people can cope with cancer and other chronic diseases than they do with a person suffering from Schizophrenia. The causes of Schizophrenia are not yet well understood. However, the fact remains that families and friends are often shocked and feels angry when they learn of a schizophrenic diagnosis. This paper will describe the symptoms of schizophrenia disorder and treatment methods offered by the biological, psychodynamic, and cognitive-behavioral approaches. Symptoms To begin with, schizophrenia is a mental health condition diagnosed mostly between the ages of 15 to 35 years, according to Boyle (2002, p. 4). However, as earlier stated, this health condition can affect an individual any time in life. Individual suffering from schizophrenia shows certain signs and symptoms most of which looks abnormal to a rational person. Tsuang, Faraone, and Glatt (2011, p. 19) note that individuals suffering from schizophrenia lack the ability to think rationally. Such individual lose the ability to evaluate their external surrounding and association with others. At the same time, do not believe that whatever they see is a reality. To them, everything they see is false. Delusion is one of the most common symptoms observed in people suffering from schizophrenia, according to Buckley and Castle (2011, p. 21). This system reflects through distortion of the patient’s interpretation and perception of the things they see around them. This makes them portray certain behaviors that a casual observer may see as abnormal, even though a schizophrenic individual believes them to be true. For example, an individual suffering from schizophrenia may show a bizarre behavior such as locking a door, which is non-existent. Others may pick a phone but refuse to talk for the fear of the unknown. Since they lack the ability to perceive and interpret reality, schizophrenic individuals tend to believe that things around them are being controlled from outside (Harrison and Weinberger 2011, p. 36). In this regard, some ends up believing that they have extraordinary powers, such as the power to destroy a building by merely kicking it, while others may hide as a means of protecting themselves from things, which cannot be seen by a rational person. Hallucination is another major symptom of schizophrenia, according to Harrison and Weinberger (2011, p. 36). Individual suffering from schizophrenia tend to hear voices, which does not exist. However, to the patient, the voice appears realistic. In fact, some schizophrenic patients may go to the extent or responding to the unrealistic voice believing that the voice is true. As a result, some demonstrate this by talking to themselves in belief that they are talking to real people who cannot be seen by a normal person. Schizophrenic patients tend to demonstrate lack of motivation in life. In this regard, such patients loose the drive to do the things the way they used to do before suffering from the health condition (Buckley and Castle 2011, p. 26). For example, an individual suffering from schizophrenia may saddened abandon school, or stop doing family chore, such as cooking and washing. As such, families of individuals suffering from schizophrenia need to understand that the sudden loss of motivation and self-drive is due to mental health condition, not laziness. Individuals suffering from schizophrenia tend to isolate themselves from the rest. In most cases, schizophrenic individuals would tend to lonely since they believe that the people around them might harm them. As such, they believe that staying is a means of protecting themselves from harm. Research also shows that majority of individuals suffering from schizophrenia are very hot tempered. Any small thing irritates them to the extent that they may become so violent to the people around. This explains the reason why most people fear individuals suffering from the disease. Others feel suspicious of things, which are unreal. This is a reason why some tend to isolate themselves from the society. Suicidal tendency is another major symptom of schizophrenia. Harrison and Weinberger (2011, p. 40) reveal that one in every three individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia attempts committing suicide. Researchers have also estimated that about 10% of patients diagnosed with schizophrenia will commit suicide within 20 years after diagnosis. These individuals are also not likely to share their suicidal thoughts with people around them, a situation that has made intervention very challenging to health professionals. The high suicidal tendency has also made psychologists to believe that these patients suffer from manic disorders. Harrison and Weinberger (2011, p. 41) note that male schizophrenic patients under 30 years of age have high suicidal tendencies. The high suicidal tendency among schizophrenic patients has also been linked to imagines voices that commands the patients to harm themselves. Patients suffering from schizophrenia develops strong urge for substance abuse (Gillig and Morrison (2009, p. 53). This drive for substance abuse is due to their inability to make rational judgment and control the temptations. This makes them abuse drugs believing that it is the right thing to do. Some goes to the extent of trying to self-medicate their mental problems with mind-altering drugs. Health professionals claim that the abuse of substances, such as alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, and heroin is an impediment to the treatment and recovery from the health condition. Treatments Intense research conducted regarding schizophrenia has resulted in the development of a number of treatment methods, including biological, psychodynamic, and cognitive behavioral treatment methods. In most cases, a combination of these methods is used, though this depends on the method appropriate to the patient. Biological treatment of schizophrenia Behavioral treatment has been the most commonly used method of treating schizophrenia. Biological approach to the treatment of schizophrenia is applied based on the assumption that the development and maintenance of the disease is influenced by the biochemical factors (Lieberman, Stroup and McEvoy 2005, p. 1210). As such, the biological approach uses the biological means to change an individual’s psychological state. So far, four biological medications exist that helps in treating patients suffering from schizophrenia disorder. These include electro convulsive therapy, drug treatment, insulin shock therapy, and psychosurgery. Antipsychotic medications are the most commonly used biological medication for the treatment of schizophrenia today. Antipsychotic treats schizophrenia by helping in normalizing the biochemical abnormalities that causes schizophrenia. Gillig and Morrison (2009, p. 42) argue that biological medication is effective since it prevents relapse of the disease once treated. The three types of antipsychotic medications include conventional antipsychotics, new antipsychotics and antipsychotics. Conventional antipsychotics are effective in controlling the delusions, hallucination and confusion, which are some of the common symptoms of schizophrenia. This type of medication has been in since 1950s (Lieberman, Stroup and McEvoy 2005, p. 1212). The conventional antipsychotics drugs work by blocking dopamine receptors, which helps in treating the symptoms of schizophrenia. The other types of antipsychotics drugs also work on a similar manner by treating the positive symptoms of the disease. Psychodynamic treatments Psychodynamic is a form of medication that views schizophrenia as a disorder caused by the disintegration of an individual’s ego (Boyle 2002, p. 101). As a result, the treatment mainly focuses on controlling the ego of an individual. In this regard, psychodynamic therapy treats schizophrenia by helping in restructuring of an individual’s ego-defense mechanisms. This helps a schizophrenic individual to understand and manage their past appropriately. Cognitive behavioral treatment Cognitive behavioral medication is also another effective method of treating schizophrenia. Cognitive therapy has proved effective in helping patients suffering from schizophrenia to manage the positive symptoms of the disease. Kingdon and Turkington (1991, p. 207) demonstrated that schizophrenic patients who receive cognitive therapy experiences mild delusions and hallucinations. In addition, individuals who receive cognitive therapy have also been found to recover from their functioning more effectively than schizophrenic patients who have not received cognitive therapy. Cognitive model maintains that the way people see themselves and the external environment around them, as well as the future, impacts greatly on their behaviors and emotions (Kingdon and Turkington 1991, p. 209). When treating individuals using cognitive therapy, the treatment is usually provided to patients in sessions, which lasts approximately one hour. Nevertheless, the duration taken may sometimes be shorter than one hour, while the therapy may sometimes be offered in breaks depending on the magnitude of the agitation or distress. The principle aim of cognitive therapy for schizophrenia is to minimize the patient’s distress that is linked to the symptoms of the disease. References Boyle, M 2002, Schizophrenia: A scientific delusion? Psychology Press, New York, NY. Buckley, P. F., & Castle, D. J 2011, Schizophrenia. Oxford University Press, New York, NY. Gillig, P. M., & Morrison, A. K 2009, Cognitive behavior therapy for people with schizophrenia. Psychiatry, 6(12): 32–39. Harrison, P., & Weinberger, D. R 2011, Schizophrenia. John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ. Kingdon D. G., & Turkington, D 1991, The use of cognitive behavior therapy with a normalizing rationale in schizophrenia: preliminary report. J Nerv Ment Dis, 179:207–211. Lieberman, J. A., Stroup, T. S., McEvoy J. P 2005, Effectiveness of antipsychotic drugs in patients with chronic schizophrenia. NEJM. 353(12):1209–1223. Tsuang, M. T., Faraone, S. V., & Glatt, S. J. 2011, Schizophrenia. Oxford University Press, New York, NY. Williams, A. D 2012, Schizophrenia. Xlibris Corporation, Manson, OH. Read More