Adults with Schizophrenia: Impacts of Nonpharmacological Interventions
Despite the advances of antipsychotic medications, schizophrenia is a leading cause of global disability associated with high rates of hospitalizations, depression, and suicide attempts (Statistics Canada, 2015, para. 5). According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) (2016), “schizophrenia is a chronic and severe mental disorder that affects how a person thinks, feels, and behaves” (para. 1). Additionally, individuals with schizophrenia may experience varied symptoms including: delusions and hallucinations; movement and thought disorders; flat affect and decreased pleasure; and impaired attention and memory (NIMH, 2016, para. 4, 5, 6). The purpose of this paper is to examine the impacts of nonpharmacological interventions in the population of adults with schizophrenia. Several modalities of nonpharmacological treatments have been examined for efficacy, however our research focuses specifically on the following categories: (a) psychoeducation and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), (b) physical fitness and yoga programs, (c) combined pharmacological and nonpharmacological therapies, (d) case management and community services, and (e) technology and relational agents.
The management of schizophrenia is complex and requires an “all-encompassing approach” which should be individualized to meet the needs of a particular patient (Schizophrenia Society of Canada, 2016, para. 5).
Medication has been the most successful treatment by far. Antipsychotic drugs do little for helping the patient understand and deal with various aspects of their illness. Because of this, psychotherapy is absolutely necessary along with medication. Alarmingly, a recent study shows that only a third of schizophrenia patients are getting the correct
Schizophrenia is a major public health obstacle that should not be taken lightly. It can force abundant stress on a family, friends and society as well as create substantial economic misfortune due to treatment costs. In order to improve future conditions, it is important to inform society of the demands of mental illness as well as limit the cost for something so important to an individual’s health and well-being.
Schizophrenia is a chronic, severe brain disorder which causes people to have odd thoughts, disturbed emotions and motor abnormalities (Carpenter, 2015). It is usually followed by psychosis, disconnecting from reality. People sometimes hear thoughts; some may think others are plotting against them. Even though individuals with schizophrenia have split personalities, it does not mean they are violent or dangerous. Schizophrenic people do not make sense when they speak. Approximately 1 of every 100 people in the world suffers from schizophrenia during his or her lifetime (Lindenmayer & Khan, 2012). An estimated 24 million people worldwide are afflicted with this disorder, 2.5 million people in the United States (NIMH, 2015). This disorder tends to affect people in the lower levels of the social economical classes. It is called having a downward drift by which having schizophrenia can cause someone to function poorly and go from a high to low social economical level. People with schizophrenia often rely on families and their environments for help them daily with daily tasks (NIMH, 2015). Schizophrenia causes symptoms: positive, negative, and psychomotor. Current treatments for schizophrenia are the second generation antipsychotic.
Assessment of schizophrenia in a clinical setting has been limited for decades by the accepted conceptual model that psychological symptoms are the main problem rather than a holistic viewpoint. Schizophrenia is a multifaceted disorder that expresses systematically, not just locally to the brain in the form of psychosis (Kirkpatrick, Miller, García-Rizo, & Fernandez-Egea, 2014). In order to evaluate the inconsistency with the standard model, a review of schizophrenia, how to clinically address the disorder as a systemic condition, and the important factors to convey to the patient and their family about symptom treatment will be presented.
Schizophrenia is a long-term, psychotic disorder that affects approximately 1% of the world’s population (Dourish and Dawson, 2014). The condition is characterised by a ‘fundamental disturbance of personality’, as a person suffers from hallucinations (either hearing voices or seeing things that do not exist), delusions, altered perceptions and an overall, quite dramatic, change in behaviour (Tsuang and Faraone, 1997; Roberts, et al. 1993:14.1). The specific signs of schizophrenia can be divided into positive and negative symptoms and cognitive impairment (Köster LS et al., 2014). The positive symptoms are those that are obvious indicators of the disorder and are often seen as the most dramatic, as they become extremely visible to the relatives of a patient, pursuing distressing effects on the sufferer (Tsuang and Faraone, 1997). They are referred to as positive as they are a result of the disease producing an abnormal event, such as the creation of intense thoughts the patient cannot control (Tsuang and Faraone, 1997). However, the negative symptoms and cognitive impairments are just as serious and express the deterioration of normal mental and behavioural manners, such as poverty of speech (Tsuang and Faraone, 1997). Therapeutic treatment for schizophrenia therefore needs to target both of these symptomatic areas, to manage both the mental and behavioural traits. However,
Assessment of schizophrenia in a clinical setting has been limited for decades by the accepted conceptual model that psychological symptoms are the main problem rather than a holistic viewpoint. Schizophrenia is a multifaceted disorder that expresses systemically, not just locally to the brain in the form of psychosis (Kirkpatrick, Miller, García-Rizo, & Fernandez-Egea, 2014). In order to evaluate the inconsistency with the standard model, a review of schizophrenia, how to clinically address the disorder as a systemic condition, and the important factors to convey to the patient and their family about symptom treatment will be presented.
Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder that “disrupts the function of multiple brain systems, resulting in impaired social and occupational functioning” (Lewis & Sweet, 2009, pg. 706). Lewis (2009) suggests these functions usually consist of the confluence of disturbance in perception, attention, volition, fluency and production of language, recognition and expression of emotion, and capacity for pleasure. Schizophrenia has calamitous effects on people, and such devastating illness afflicts “0.5%-1% of the world’s population” (Lewis & Sweet, 2009, pg. 706). Lewis (2009) states that people with schizophrenia are at high risk of cardiovascular disease as well as excessive nicotine, alcohol, and
With growing initiatives and sign of the success of psychosocial involvements for schizophrenia, the highly organized and a few integrated programs used as an aide to antipsychotics, have specified positive patient outcomes. On the basis of numerous extensive randomized controlled trials, single and multiple types of antipsychotics, or polypharmacy in combination with other psychotropic drugs, are considered useful in schizophrenia treatment. The introduction of second-generation antipsychotics has further enhanced the desired effects of these medications for schizophrenia care and reduced their unwelcome effects such as extrapyramidal adverse effects, mortality, and metabolic disorder. It is important to evaluate and comprehend the current knowledge about pharmacological and other medical treatments for schizophrenia sufferers, before exploring the new changes or enhancements needed in schizophrenia treatment and
Medications adherence is an ongoing problem among schizophrenic patients. Non-adherence results in poor treatment outcome, relapse of symptoms, frequent hospitalizations and poor quality of life. The selected evidence based article addresses medication management for schizophrenia after first episode and how it benefits on relapse prevention.
As one of the most common mental illnesses in the country, schizophrenia should not be neglected. It is known what the disorder is capable of doing to a patient's body, but it is not entirely comprehended by an average person. As a result of fully understanding schizophrenia, patients will be able to receive the correct treatment and manage a lifetime with it. If we, as a country, come together to recognize schizophrenia for what it is, the patients will have a more gratifying
Schizophrenia is perhaps the least understood and most frightening of the mental disorders. One percent of the world population is affected by it and the World Health Organisation has ranked it as the seventh greatest cause of disability worldwide (Frangou, 2008). On average it takes one to one and half decades off the sufferers life and is a greater cause of mortality than many cancers and physical illnesses (van Os & Kapur, 2009). This paper will present an out of hospital case study and compare both its presentation and management with what is known about schizophrenia and what is considered best practise management.
In this study, the participants used were twenty-four males between the ages of 18 and 56. They were brought from the VA Greater LA Healthcare System (VAGLAHS) and they met the DSM criteria for schizophrenia. “Subjects were clinically stable as indicated by: no psychiatric hospitalizations in the past 6 months; adherent to antipsychotic medication with dosages not varying by >25% over 3 months prior to participation; at least 6 months since any indication of potential danger to self or others; no acute medical problems; and chronic medical conditions consistently treated and stable for >3 months. Exclusion criteria were mental retardation; treatment with
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that can present in many different ways. Most often, symptoms display in a negative or positive manner. While medications are on the market to mitigate symptoms, the optimal treatment method couples both pharmaceutical and psychiatric rehabilitation. The Patient Outcomes Research Team, commonly called PORT, has issued treatment recommendations for Schizophrenia. The first publication, issued in 1998, has offered compiled research in the realm of Schizophrenia. The following paper will discuss the treatment options for Schizophrenia to reflect the 2003 guidelines of the PORT publication.
There has been renewed interest in psychosocial interventions, including psychotherapy, in the treatment of schizophrenia. In recent years, this has included adapting cognitive behavioral therapy techniques previously used mainly in the treatment of mood and anxiety disorders for use with individuals with more severe mental disorders. The core symptoms of schizophrenia in many people have proven to be resistant to treatment with medication alone and can be targeted for treatment with CBT. (Morrison, A. K.
Treating schizophrenia is just that, treating the symptoms to help change the patient’s life, not altering the length or presence of the illness, because we don’t know how to cure it (Mendel, 1989). To be able to cure schizophrenia we would have to understand the causes people of all ages develop. It is the drugs and therapy that help control the symptoms, so the one affected can live a comparatively normal life, having more control over knowing what reality and unreality is. People are treated, so they can better find the clear sense of one’s self. They do not know where their bodies stop, and all the