Some Facts That Will Help You In Dealing With A Schizophrenic Patient
Schizophrenia is a chronic lifelong mental illness which affects nearly over 50 million people across the globe, every year. This disease is so gripping that most of the affected patients are never able to get cured completely. The bigger problem is that it is difficult to diagnose the problem in its initial phases, as most of the starting symptoms can be confused with the symptoms of various other health problems.
Even though the disorder is serious, it is still treatable to some extent, and the treatment is most effective only when the friends and family members of the patient get to know more about the basics of this mental disorder.
Some facts
•   Most patients show symptoms like hearing voices and seeing people who don’t exist. Also some patients say that their thoughts and their mind are controlled by some virtual person, and that they do everything as instructed by that person. Some of the other symptoms are disorganized thoughts, hallucinations, delusions and bouts of aggression. These are some of the most common symptoms, but the symptoms vary from one patient to another.
•   There is no established cure for schizophrenia, perhaps for the reason that the main cause of this problem have still not been discovered, and so all the treatments are basically inclined towards minimizing the intensity of the symptoms.
•   The disability caused is somewhat permanent and in most cases the patients are never able to get their life back onto the normal track. Most have to quit their jobs or leave their businesses, because of the disability.
•   There are six different types of schizophrenia, each having a peculiar symptom which distinguishes it from the other types. The treatment strategy can be developed only after determining the type of schizophrenia. The diagnosis is long stretched, and the physician may subject the patient to a series of tests, before drawing any conclusions.
•   As for the treatment, antipsychotic medications may be prescribed alongside psychotherapy. The treatment is still based on the trial and error approach and the doctor may have to change and try different medicines, a few times, before the treatment drugs can be finalized.
