Schizophrenia is a chronic, grave mental disorder that disturbs the way a person thinks, acts, articulates emotions, sees reality, and relates to others. Although schizophrenia isn’t as common as other main mental illnesses, it can be the most chronic and incapacitating.
Contrary to general belief, schizophrenia is not a split or multiple personalities. Schizophrenia includes psychosis, a kind of mental illness in which a person can’t tell what’s actual and what’s imaginary. At times, people with psychotic disorders drop touch with reality. The world might seem like a shuffle of perplexing thoughts, images, and sounds. Their behavior might be very bizarre and even shocking.
How rigorous schizophrenia differs from person to person. Some people have just one psychotic episode, whilst others have numerous episodes during a lifetime but lead comparatively normal lives in between. Still, others might have more trouble functioning over time, with little development between full-blown psychotic episodes. Schizophrenia symptoms seem to deteriorate and improve in cycles identified as relapses and remissions.
Symptoms of Schizophrenia
- Delusions: These are false, mixed, and occasionally strange beliefs that aren’t based in reality and that the person denies giving up, even when shown the facts.
- Hallucinations: These include sensations that aren’t actual. Hearing voices is the most common hallucination in people with schizophrenia. The voices might comment on the person’s behavior, insult them, or give commands.
- Catatonia: In this condition, the person might stop speaking, and their body might be fixed in a single position for an excessively long time.
- Shifting rapidly from one thought to the next without clear or logical connections between them
- Moving slowly
- Being incapable to make decisions
- Writing disproportionately but without meaning
- Forgetting or losing things
- Lack of emotion or an inadequate range of emotions
- Withdrawal from family, friends, and social activities
- Less energy
- Speaking less
- Lack of motivation
- Loss of pleasure or interest in life
- Poor hygiene and grooming habits
What Causes Schizophrenia?
The particular cause of schizophrenia isn’t recognized. Researchers have revealed a number of things that appear to make someone more likely to get schizophrenia, including
- 1. Genetics (heredity)
- 2. Brain chemistry and circuits
- 3. Brain abnormality
- 4. Environment
How Is Schizophrenia Treated?
The objective of schizophrenia treatment is to alleviate the symptoms and to cut the probabilities of a relapse, or return of symptoms. Treatment for schizophrenia might include:
1. Medications:
The main medications used to treat schizophrenia are known as antipsychotics. These drugs don’t cure schizophrenia but help dismiss the most troubling symptoms, comprising delusions, hallucinations, and thinking problems.
2. Coordinated specialty care (CSC):
This is a team approach toward treating schizophrenia when the first symptoms emerge. It merges medicine and therapy with social services, employment, and educational interventions.
3. Psychosocial therapy:
While medication might help release symptoms of schizophrenia, numerous psychosocial treatments can help with the behavioural, psychological, social, and occupational difficulties that go with the illness. Psychosocial therapies comprise:
- Rehabilitatio
- Cognitive remediation
- Individual psychotherapy
- Family therapy
- Group therapy/support groups
4. Hospitalization:
Numerous people with schizophrenia might be treated as outpatients. But hospitalization might be the best option for people:
- With grave symptoms
- Who might harm themselves or others
- Who can’t take care of themselves at home
5. Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT):
In this procedure, electrodes are fixed to the person’s scalp. While they’re asleep under general anesthesia, doctors send a trivial electric shock to the brain. A course of ECT therapy generally includes 2-3 treatments per week for several weeks.
Can Schizophrenia Be Prevented?
There’s no acknowledged way to prevent schizophrenia. But early diagnosis and treatment can help evade or ease recurrent relapses and hospitalizations, and help cut the disturbance to the person’s life, family, and relationships