Schizophrenia Articles

Cheat Sheet / Updated 03-27-2016

If someone you love is living with schizophrenia it's important to keep contact information on hand in case of an emergency. When your loved one has to go to the hospital or a crisis intervention program, make sure you take necessary items and documentation for treatment. Successfully treating schizophrenia calls for both a psychiatrist who understands mental illness and taking medications regularly, so be sure to ask the right questions to find the right doctor and use some helpful reminders for taking medicine.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Part of living with someone who has schizophrenia means being prepared for emergencies. If a crisis occurs involving your loved one with schizophrenia, make sure you have the following items and information on hand to take to an emergency facility: A photo ID with your loved one's name and place of residence. Your loved one's Social Security card or Social Security number. Your loved one's Medicaid or Medicare card, and/or other proof of health insurance coverage. A brown bag with your loved one's medication vials or a list of all the medications (psychiatric and other) she takes, including names and dosages. A list of any adverse side effects to medication your loved one has experienced in the past. Information about known allergies or physical health problems. Names and contact information for your loved one's psychiatrist, case manager, and any other clinicians or programs involved in his outpatient care. The names and phone numbers of any friends or relatives your loved one would want contacted. A letter signed by your loved one providing permission for clinical staff to discuss his care with family or friends he designates. (The hospital may have a form available for this purpose.) Make sure your loved one doesn't bring any valuables (cash, jewelry, and so on); some hospitals will allow him to keep his cellphone. Also, make sure he doesn't bring any knives, belts, or other things that might be considered dangerous and be taken away.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

To help control the symptoms of schizophrenia, taking medication regularly is important. Remind loved ones who have schizophrenia to take prescribed medication as directed at the same time every day. These tips can help: Associate taking medication with a daily routine (brushing her teeth or eating breakfast, for example) or a visual cue (for example, a kitchen counter). Use a divided pill container to help your loved one keep track of her medicines. Make sure that your loved one's doctor explains — and you and your loved one understand — the reason she's taking each medication and the risks of not taking them. If your loved one knows why she's taking the medication, she may be more likely to stay on track with her medications. Ask your loved one's psychiatrist to minimize the number of daily doses whenever practical. (Short-acting drugs may require more doses.)

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

When searching for a psychiatrist for a loved one with schizophrenia, choose carefully. The psychiatrist is key to the management of your loved one's schizophrenia, so you need to find out some essential information before the initial meeting with the doctor. Ask the psychiatrist the following questions: How much do you charge per visit? Do you accept my loved one's insurance? Do you have a sliding scale (reduced fees for low-income individuals without insurance)? What are your hours and what emergency coverage do you have off-hours? How much experience do you have treating people with schizophrenia? Optional: Do you have experience treating people who abuse drugs or alcohol? What is your orientation? Will you be emphasizing medication management? Supportive therapy focused on problem solving? Helping my loved one learn new thinking skills? What are your policies regarding communicating with friends or family members? After your loved one has met with the psychiatrist for an evaluation, ask the following questions: What's my loved one's diagnosis? What will you be treating her for? What will my loved one's plan of treatment be? What medication(s) will you prescribe? What are their potential risks or side effects? What are the risks if my loved one is not treated? How will you coordinate my loved one's care with other health and mental-health providers?

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Schizophrenics sometimes require emergency treatment. Everyone should have emergency contact information with them, but it's critical if you suffer from schizophrenia or any serious illness. Fill out the information and have your loved one keep it available, like in a wallet or purse, so the right people can be contacted in case of an emergency: Name: _________________________________________________________ Address: _______________________________________________________ Names and phone number(s) of emergency contacts (relatives or friends): _______________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________ Name and phone number of psychiatrist: ______________________________ _______________________________________________________________ Name and phone number of primary clinician or case manager: _____________ _______________________________________________________________ Name of internist or family doctor: __________________________________ _______________________________________________________________ Names and dosages of prescribed medications _______________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________ Pharmacy name and phone number: __________________________________ _______________________________________________________________ Allergies: _______________________________________________________

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

The most common form of psychosis is schizophrenia. Psychiatrist Eugene Bleuler used the term schizophrenia in 1911 to describe people who exhibited signs of disorganized thought processes, a lack of coherence between thought and emotion, and a state of disconnection from reality. Today, the DSM-5 criteria for schizophrenia include: Delusions: A delusion is a firmly held belief that a person maintains in spite of evidence to the contrary. One common type of delusion is a paranoid or persecutory delusion, which involves intense fear that you’re being followed, listened to, or otherwise threatened by someone or something. Mr. Smith appears to be experiencing a paranoid delusion. He “knew” that the neighbor was out to get his house! Hallucinations: A hallucination can be defined as a perception that occurs without external stimulation that is experienced as very real. Hallucinations can be auditory (hearing voices or sounds), visual (seeing people who are not there, demons, or dead people), olfactory (smells), gustatory (tastes), or somatic (experiencing physical sensations within the body). Command hallucinations are a potentially dangerous form of auditory hallucination because they involve a voice or voices telling the sufferer to do something, often involving violent or suicidal behavior. Disorganized speech and thought: If you’ve ever had a conversation with someone, and you had no idea what she was talking about, you may have witnessed disorganized speech and thought, which are characterized by extremely tangential (mostly irrelevant), circumstantial (beating around the bush), or loosely associated (jumping from one unrelated thought to another) speech. These abnormal styles of communicating may be evidence of a thought disorder. Grossly disorganized or catatonic behavior: When a person behaves in a disorganized manner, she may act extremely silly or childlike, easily get lost or confused, stop caring for herself and her basic needs, do strange or bizarre things like talk to herself, or be extremely socially inappropriate. Catatonic behavior involves complete immobility, absolute lack of awareness of one’s surroundings, and sometimes being mute. Negative symptoms: A negative symptom refers to the absence of some usual or expected behavior. The absence of the behavior is what is abnormal. Three negative symptoms are often associated with schizophrenia: Flat affect: When a person exhibits no emotionality whatsoever Alogia: Indication that a person’s thought processes are dull, blocked, or generally impoverished Avolition: When a person has no ability to persist in an activity; looks like an extreme lack of motivation Schizophrenia is diagnosed in about 4 to 5 of every 1,000 people. Generally the condition is diagnosed in individuals between the ages of 18 to 35. Sometimes, but rarely, it’s diagnosed in childhood. Schizophrenia typically begins in the late teens and early twenties and is fully present by the mid- to late twenties. It can develop rapidly or gradually, and there can be periods of less severe symptoms. Some sufferers are chronically and persistently ill. Periods of illness can be characterized by a marked inability or diminished capacity to function in everyday life, often leading to school failure, job loss, and relationship difficulties. Schizophrenia’s causes Are the causes of schizophrenia organic (biochemical/physiological) or functional (resulting from experience)? At the moment, perhaps because of the wide array of newly developed brain-scanning techniques, the organic explanations are far more prominent. However, the best answer may lie in a synthesis of the two points of view. The main theory in practice today is the diathesis-stress model, which merges two different areas of research. First, some definitions. A diathesis is a predisposition to a particular disease. Stress can be defined as any number of psychological and social factors. So, the diathesis-stress model holds that schizophrenia is the consequence of a stress-activated diathesis or predisposition. Proposed biological diathesis for schizophrenia includes problems with brain chemistry and/or development. Researchers have found malformed parts of the brain in people with schizophrenia. These biological abnormalities can lead to problems with thinking, speech, behavior, and staying in contact with reality. For the stress component, psychological factors address the reality distortion associated with schizophrenia. Some experts propose that the world experienced by someone with schizophrenia is so harsh, and its conflicts so intense, that the person needs a vacation from it. Research supports that psychic trauma, such as child abuse, can be related to psychotic breakdowns, and it certainly constitutes a harsh reality that inspires an escape. A social factor related to schizophrenia that has shown promise in recent research is a phenomenon known as expressed emotion. Expressed emotion (EE) refers to negative communication by family members directed at the person suffering from schizophrenia. EE often consists of excessive criticism. Family members may comment on the patient’s behavior, “You’re crazy!” for example. EE also includes emotional over-involvement of family members that can overwhelm the patient. Treatment of schizophrenia Schizophrenia is one of the most difficult mental disorders to treat. Its effects are often debilitating for both the individual with the disease and his family. Approaches to treating this illness range from medication to helping individuals develop important functional skills such as money management or social interaction methods. Antipsychotic medications such as Haldol and Zyprexa are typically the first line of treatment for people suffering from schizophrenia or related psychotic disorders. Although they are extremely beneficial, these medications are known as palliatives because they don’t cure disease; they just lessen the intensity of symptoms. Psychosocial treatment and rehabilitation have also shown promise in managing schizophrenia. Patients learn social and self-care skills that can help reduce the number of stressors they face. Although seemingly out of fashion in recent years (too labor-intensive and therefore too expensive), psychotherapy, specifically cognitive therapy, has been used in recent years to teach patients to challenge their delusional belief systems and become better “consumers” of reality.