Schizophrenia is a psychological disorder that involves chronic psychosis. It results in weakening in occupational as well as social functioning. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the illness has contributed to the global burden of sickness. It disables people economically due to medical expenses for treating the disorders. Therefore, the world should implement conjoint efforts towards the prevention and cure of Schizophrenia ailments.
The first medication for Schizophrenia treatment is antipsychotic medications. According to the clinical trials conducted lately antipsychotic medications have proven to treat the symptoms and disorders related to behaviours effectively. The drug is applicable with assessment and the management of side effects to boost the treatment procedures. Pharmacotherapy and evidence-based psychosocial interventions help the patients to attain full recovery. The treatment is applicable in phases.
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Schizophrenia treatment focuses on different illness phases, and its focus varies as patients reach in various stages of ailments. The first stage of treatment is an acute phase. It occurs when an individual who had the previous history of schizophrenia may have a condition off psychotic relapse. The acute phase is applicable in the earliest period of psychosis. The focus of this stage of treatment is to lower the harshness of psychotic deeds and feelings. The next phase follows. The second phase is the ‘pre-treatment assessment’ the examinations applies to the patients are already on antipsychotic medication. It aims at offering physical examination with an accompaniment of neurological exam. The attention concentrates on issues which may arise as a result of antipsychotic medication. The study entails heart rate, blood pressure tests, body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference. The administration of drugs is then done to treat the schizophrenia disorder.
Most symptoms of Schizophrenia illness is identifiable in initial adulthood or later stages of adolescence. The disorder brings about personality change as the victims do not want to associate with social settings anymore. Psychosis illness affects how a person reasons and perceives the world. The author asserts that according to researchers conducted, Schizophrenia affects adult US citizens of both genders being affected equally. Male gender is likely affected at the age of 16 years to 25 years while the female possibility of contacting the disorder ranges at the age of 25 years and 30 years (Alexander, 2014). The two genders are affected by the disease differently, with women experiencing other mood symptoms: the symptoms increases at the pregnant period and the postpartum stage. Patients experience hallucinations; hears sounds and smell things not there and delusions; having beliefs that are not in existence. They have thought disorders and movement disorders too.
Schizophrenia rarely occurs in childhood stage. It is difficult to detect Schizophrenia disorder in teens because the earlier signs are a change of pals, sleeping challenges, irritability and drop in score. These behaviours are very common in teens and therefore cannot be directly linked to Schizophrenia illness. Various factors affiliated with the youth shows that this group of individuals are at high risk of developing the disorder. The factors include isolation and withdrawal from other people, unusual thoughts, suspicions and family-related psychosis history.
It is challenging to perform psychosis process to kids until they fully develop linguistic activities and cognitive capabilities. For instance, in a preschool setting, it is hard to distinguish between developmental phenomena and sleep-related actions. Imaginary friends and fantasy information are common expressions among children. However, hallucinations problems may be observed at early childhood, but they are interlinked with anxiety and stress. Though disorders and thinking problem is challenging to establish with children ( Remschmidt, 2001 ).
Schizophrenia illness possibilities increase with developmental levels. In the adolescent, the disorder risks rise, and the clinical features for this stage of development are similar to those experienced adulthood. Developmental effects are as a result of though disturbance process increase as the individual matures, and hence links him or her to hallucinations and delusions. The level and capacity of thinking for adults and adolescents is different from that of children. The elder stage risk to Schizophrenia disorders is triggered by life experiences and challenges one has to tackle as a daily routine. The adolescent’s stage comes along with variation in body hormones that change feelings and thoughts for those people under this stage of life.
Schizophrenia patients are not violent. They are likely to harm themselves than other although substance abuse such as alcohol and drugs intake may increase their chances of being fierce. If the psychosis cases are not treatable, the violence risk increases but with treatment, the patients remain calm. Therefore individual diagnosed with Schizophrenia can live with family members and their neighbours in peace. The patients are also able to attend their job responsibilities regularly.
The health professionals attending to Schizophrenia disorders patients advise them to manage stressful moments, by making themselves feel better effectively. Better response to stress enables them to live peacefully with surrounding people and enhances their lifestyles. In a job environment, the patients are advised to avoid conflicts with other staffs and employers. Some patients undergo substance abuse such as taking alcohol and cigarettes to manage stress, but such approaches may affect them health wise. Recognizing the triggers and causes of stress can help one to reduce stress and also cope with its side effects. The best way to deal with problems and stressing moments is to look for solutions to tackle the challenges and face them courageously ( Zahiduzzaman, 2013 ).
The dosage administration of Anti-psychotic medications is piloted after the right diagnosis of the Schizophrenia disorders. The medication increases if the patients do not respond well to the initial dose. A switch for psychotic medications is recommendable if the patients have side effects from the medication. Most of the antipsychotic drugs are monitored from the initial stage to therapeutic range as first as possible. The patients are advised to seek medical attention from health practitioners who will mentor their progress.
According to (Acton, 2013), the treatment of acute Schizophrenia is present. The Anti-psychotic drugs have proved to be effective. Those patients free of steady syndrome arrive at a stable condition. These drugs prevent relapse cases among Schizophrenia disorders cases. The treatment is boosted by social, historical and clinical data to arrive at an exact diagnosis of the patients’ conditions and determine the phase of treatment to be affected. Maintenance therapy is also implemented to enhance the treatment procedures to the patient with this illness. The therapy adds value to the patients’ treatment through an assessment of his or her progress. Therefore, antipsychotic medication is effective in preventions and treatment of Schizophrenia disorder.
The identified timeframe of drug titration depends with drugs specification and also patients’ personal tolerance since the drugs tend to result in sedation effects and hypotension. Most patients can reach therapeutic levels within five to six days in the application of quetiapine and iloperidone and two-three weeks in the form of clozapine. The mental health doctors outline different dosage and the side effects expected from them. Clinicians monitored the conditions of the patients keenly to avoid change of medications prematurely. The resolutions for psychotic symptoms takes time, and the set duration is between four-six weeks for appropriate assessment purposes.
Patients under Schizophrenia disorder treatments process such as antipsychotic medication may experience side effects such as restlessness, postural hypotension or sedation. The mental professional should explain to the patients why the side effects occur or have a conclusion that the type of medication is not sufficient for the patient and may worsen their condition. Most cases of patients under antipsychotic drugs improves within the earlier weeks of administration of treatments. However, some cases show that the improvements decelerate within two weeks but later improvement in subsequent weeks or months have been recorded. Additionally, Schizophrenia patients experience a decrease in the harshness of the illness symptoms. Their impact on patients’ actions may also reduce. Cases of delusions and hallucinations become less terrifying, and the victims can focus their attention and concentration on other issues. The tendency to misunderstand current and new data is predictable too.
Dose adjustments are recommendable if the patients do not respond to the current drugs. The clinicians may decide to switch to another antipsychotic drug which may be useful to the patients as a poor response in connection to the side effects. Additional antipsychotic medications are also applied if the single drug is not responding well to the psychotic illness. The medicine has proved to treat positive symptoms while negative symptoms have proved to pose difficulties to treat such as prolonged emotional expression.
The mental health personnel should implement the appropriate method to prevent and treat Schizophrenia disorders. The patients should seek medical attention to improve their sociality functions. Currently, antipsychotic medications are the best drugs to treat and to avoid schizophrenia disorders.
References
Acton, Q. (2013). Schizophrenia: New Insights for the Healthcare Professional . Georgia: Scholarly Editions.
Alexander, L., et al. (2014). New Dimensions in Women's Health (3rd ed.). USA: Jones and Bartlett learning.
Remschmid, H. (2001). Schizophrenia in Children and Adolescents . UK: Cambridge University Press.
Zahiduzzaman, A. (2013). Schizophrenia: a patient's perspective: A Patient Perspective . Bloomington: Authorhouse.
