Schizophrenia as a Challenging Disorder - Term Paper Example

Tough circumstances in life during childhood and/or adulthood including bullying and emotional or physical abuse can also cause schizophrenia in an individual.
Symptoms of schizophrenia include unrealistic beliefs or delusions and disorganized speech. The patient hears, feels, smells, and tastes objects which are invisible to others. The patient’s behavior is also disorganized. The relatively less noticeable psychotic symptoms include shyness, lack of speech, and curiosity.

Diagnosis of schizophrenia is complicated as there is no standard test to identify a patient with schizophrenia. The clinician or therapist tries to diagnose it by collecting information about the personal, social, and medical history of the patient. The clinician or therapist tends to identify hallucinations and delusions in the patient’s behavior.
Several mood-enhancing and stress-relieving medicines are prescribed for the treatment of schizophrenia.

The generic term used for these medications is “antipsychotics” as they tend to reduce the severity of psychotic symptoms. Medications to treat schizophrenia include risperidone, olanzapine, aripiprazole, asenapine, and paliperidone. Antipsychotic medicines immediately enhance the mood of the patient. There are other mood-stabilizer medicines like divalproex, lamotrigine, and lithium that are effective for the treatment of mood swings, though they consume more time to show effects as compared to antipsychotics (Dryden-Edwards and Stoppler 4). To achieve objective results, medicines must be taken regularly.
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