Can schizophrenia be cured with tranquilizers or antidepressants?

Mental disorder is treated exclusively in a hospital setting. Such drugs are prescribed by a doctor after a thorough examination of the patient.

Treatment for schizophrenia leads to full recovery?

Schizophrenia is an incurable disease. It is possible to achieve a long stage of remission, during this period the patient is able to return to normal life.

Does the patient understand that he is ill?

This is not always the case. He takes delusions and hallucinations for reality. At moments of “enlightenment” he can understand that he has violations in the emotional-volitional sphere. This occurs at the first or second stage of the development of pathology.

Is a person with this disease dangerous?

In the acute stage, the patient can harm others, it may seem to him that he is being attacked. There is a risk of suicide.

Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder in which the perception of reality is distorted. It is characterized by the absence of a boundary between reality and imagination. The disease is diagnosed at the age of 20-30 years. May begin in late adolescence, in old age. Signs of schizophrenia are recorded today in more than 20 million people on the planet. The diagnosis is established after examination, questioning the patient, talking with his family.

Description

This is a severe mental disorder. Equally often affects men and women, regardless of race, mental development. In men, it develops 5-7 years later than in women (at 20-28, 26-32 years, respectively). Signs of schizophrenia in men and women – a violation of perception, thinking, emotions, behavior, auditory hallucinations. Persistent false beliefs appear. The person with schizophrenia listens and obeys voices that are not there. A schizophrenic may get the impression that someone is constantly watching him. He becomes secretive, suspicious. Patients with schizophrenia often commit suicide.

Polymorphic psychotic disorder is often detected in patients with anxiety personality disorder and depression. It is combined with dependence on alcohol, drugs. May lead to disability. The probability of early death increases 2-3 times. Accompanied by social isolation. Lack of treatment can lead to disability.

The disease is treatable, it is complex, long. Medications and psychosocial support are used for treatment. The patient cannot be completely cured.

Etiology

The causes of schizophrenia are unclear and confusing. According to doctors, many factors can lead to it. It arises as a result of the interaction of genes and some environmental factors. Influenced by psycho-social factors. The most common of them:

• heredity . If among relatives there are or were patients with schizophrenia, the probability of getting sick on average will increase by 10%. Not everyone who has a genetic predisposition is at risk of developing polymorphic psychotic disorder. In 60% of patients, there are no patients among close relatives;
• prenatal factors . The main causes of schizophrenia are intrauterine infections, complications during childbirth. The dependence on the season of birth was confirmed. Those born in winter get sick more often than those born in summer. Doctors have no explanation for this;
• social conditions . Diagnosis of schizophrenia is more often given to city dwellers than to rural dwellers. At risk are citizens living in dysfunctional families, the unemployed, the homeless, who are subjected to racial discrimination;
• upbringing . The causes of schizophrenia in adolescents and adults are sexual, physical abuse that a child is subjected to in childhood. Bad relationships in the family, lack of support, neglect by parents can lead to illness;

• alcohol and drug addiction . Causal relationships are difficult to trace, but they exist. According to scientists, the disease can worsen as a result of taking psychoactive substances. Some people with schizophrenia become alcoholics, drug addicts after they have the first symptoms and sensations – suspicion, negative emotions, thought disorder;
• cognitive impairment . Patients with cognitive impairments taking antipsychotic drugs are at risk. Under the influence of stress, they show excessive attention to possible threats, perceive the mental and social environment in a distorted form.

According to scientists, schizophrenia in men and women occurs due to an overly receptive psyche. They explain the exacerbation and resumption of the disease by the interaction between internal and external stress factors. Among external stress factors, they name low material wealth, job loss, unhappy love.

Types of schizophrenia

Experts in the field of psychiatry say that in order to understand the essence of the disease, to prescribe treatment, it is necessary to identify the form, the symptoms. There are five types:

1. paranoid schizophrenia . The most common type. It is characterized by auditory and olfactory hallucinations, delirium, altered behavior, weak expressiveness of emotions (flattened affect);
2. Hebephrenic schizophrenia . It is more common in adolescence and adolescence. The disorganized form is accompanied by emotional flattening, disorder of thinking. Treatment is carried out for life;
3. Catatonic schizophrenia . A rare type of disease. It is diagnosed in about 3% of patients. Accompanied by psychomotor disorders. Patients are characterized by slow speech, lack of facial expressions, stupor, agitation;
4. undifferentiated schizophrenia . This type is characterized by symptoms that do not fit into the clinical picture of any of the types listed above;
5. Residual schizophrenia . A residual form of the disease in which the patient has mild symptoms.

Doctors also distinguish between simple schizophrenia and post-schizophrenic depression. The first type is manifested by the gradual development of negative symptoms. There are no acute psychoses. The second type ( post-schizophrenic depression) is characterized by prolonged depressive symptoms. Decreased mental and physical activity, performance. It occurs in about 25% of patients. As the disorder intensifies, the symptoms of each type increase. In most cases, the diagnosis of schizophrenia is made already when the disease is running.

Signs of schizophrenia in women

Schizophrenia is a mental illness that is characterized by impaired thought processes and mental decline. This disease affects 1% of the total population of the earth. Recognizing the signs of schizophrenia in women by behavior is quite simple, the disease in the early stages reports itself with specific symptoms .

Clinical picture

According to experts, there is a certain age at which the first signs of the development of the disease appear. Most often, a mental disorder is diagnosed between the ages of twenty and twenty-five. The appearance of the disease at a younger or mature age is much less common. The first signs of schizophrenia in women change behavior completely.

Obsession, changes in mood, increased irritability and the manifestation of groundless aggression are the main symptoms of a mental disorder. Complementing the clinical picture are such elements as bouts of hallucinations, emotional alienation, loss of interest in life, and delusional ideas.

Often the first signs of a mental disorder are expressed in the appearance of obsessive fear and senseless actions.

An example is a situation in which a woman wipes a chair several times before sitting on it. Immersion in one’s own thoughts is accompanied by a complete detachment from reality and the absence of actions that can be explained from the point of view of logic. Often, the disease in question manifests itself in the form of fear of various diseases.

In such a situation, the woman begins to attribute various symptoms to herself. Parasites that migrate to various parts of the body, rotten internal organs, reversed blood circulation are just a small part of the fantastic diseases that schizophrenic patients attribute to themselves.

How to recognize schizophrenia in women?

Diagnosing schizophrenia in women is quite simple . To do this, it is enough for a doctor to observe the behavior of a woman for several weeks. If he notices that her personality is beginning to change, this is a good reason to start therapy. Also, this psychological deviation can be recognized by a detailed anamnesis. Usually the first harbinger of schizophrenia is the appearance of obsessions, which the woman had not even thought about before. You can recognize this deviation in the nucleation station by:

1. a sharp appearance of feelings of jealousy towards their loved ones;
2. paranoia, it seems to a woman that everyone is watching her;

Women are more susceptible to the development of schizophrenia, this is due to a more mobile and unbalanced psyche.

Over time, the symptoms of schizophrenia become more and more pronounced. It becomes difficult for a woman to cope with her emotions, she does not show them in any way. People around her start to think that she doesn’t care. Because of this, serious problems can arise both in the family and at work. Many women lose interest in their husbands and children and try to ignore them. Also, with the development of schizophrenia, a woman becomes extremely indifferent and carefree, she is indifferent to any problems.

Groups of symptoms of schizophrenia

When defining schizophrenia, it is very important to distinguish between the signs and symptoms of this disease. For many diseases, these parameters are identical, but for this mental disorder they will be different. Modern specialists adhere to Blair’s tetrahedron to determine the symptoms . Allocate stronger and weaker manifestations of schizophrenia. In general, to determine this lesion, it is necessary to evaluate the following signs:

1. Alogia , or an associative defect. This is the primary manifestation of schizophrenia, which is the lack of logical thinking. A woman becomes incapable of the thought process, which is why she begins to ask a lot of questions. Also, this manifestation is characterized by the scarcity of vocabulary, the use of short and incomplete sentences.

The above signs are positive. However, keep in mind that they are not the norm. They received such a designation due to the fact that a woman acquires such changes as schizophrenia develops. If you notice changes in behavior in your loved ones, contact your doctor immediately.

Negative symptoms of schizophrenia

This kind of symptoms of this psychological deviation is characterized by the loss of any qualities. Usually they begin to fade after the manifestation of the disease. A person begins to notice that physical forces are leaving him, he becomes indifferent to the world around him, lacking initiative. The negative symptoms of this mental disorder include:

• constant desire for loneliness and loss of will;
• frequent mood swings;

If you begin to notice any changes in behavior in your loved one, talk to him and insist on visiting a psychologist.

recognize schizophrenia in the initial stages by a certain set of manifestations. If a woman is in a lowered mood for a long time, refuses to communicate, tries to stay alone longer, has become secretive, this is a good reason to contact her doctor for advice. She also begins to neglect the elementary rules of hygiene, which she had not observed before, it is also worth visiting a doctor.

Common signs of schizophrenia in women

A feature of the development of schizophrenia in women is that it develops gradually. Unlike men, the symptoms of such a mental disorder slowly increase, and do not appear at one moment. If you are attentive to the condition of your loved ones, you will easily recognize this pathology in them. First of all, the following symptoms appear:

• Speech disorders – an elderly woman begins to use monosyllabic phrases, her vocabulary is poor, she makes a huge number of mistakes.
• Apathy for life , neglect of the rules of personal hygiene – a person sees no reason to do what needs to be repeated after a certain period of time.

If a woman develops paranoid schizophrenia, she becomes more suspicious, cautious, paranoid. Also, the patient can easily notice emotional inadequacy, which worsens as the disease develops.

Symptoms of schizophrenia in pregnant women

, girls aged 20-25 are susceptible to the development of schizophrenia . This age is considered the most common among pregnant women. During this period of life, a woman’s body experiences tremendous stress, almost everything changes in it. Against this background, mental disorders often occur. You can recognize this disease in pregnant women by the appearance of:

• psychotic behavior;
• obsession and jealousy;
• hallucinations and delusions;

It is possible to recognize the prerequisites for the appearance of schizoid changes in the psyche of pregnant women by the fears that have appeared, strange and sometimes thoughtless desires. A person is completely immersed in his experiences, while not paying attention to the world around him. This can manifest itself in the sharp observance of various rituals, the pregnant woman becomes very careful. She has unreasonable fears about her health, she begins to diagnose many serious sluggish pathologies in herself.

Condition after childbirth

In a young body after childbirth, certain changes occur. Therefore, girls of this age who have given birth may be subject to varying degrees of development of schizophrenia, if they have a predisposition to it. Women may develop schizophrenia after giving birth due to severe stress that affects their physical and psychological well-being. But this is an extremely rare occurrence. The following factors can lead to the development of schizophrenia after childbirth:

Mental disorder in a woman who gave birth to a child is hard not to notice. It is characterized by pronounced symptoms, which are not typical for a healthy person. The woman refuses to accept her child and take on new responsibilities. During this period, pathological delirium is often observed in patients.

After the symptoms of schizophrenia subside, women are left with a sense of alienation in relation to their own baby. To cope with unpleasant symptoms and disease, a woman will need to undergo a course of drug therapy. Close people should help her in every possible way to achieve recovery. If they begin to move away, then the patient’s condition will worsen significantly.

Causes of schizophrenia in women

Schizophrenia is completely curable only if you start treatment in the early stages of the disease. In order to prevent a serious mental deviation, it is necessary to know what can lead to such a violation. Among the most common causes of schizophrenia are the following theories:

• Neurotransmitter – it boils down to the fact that the disease develops as a result of a prolonged increase in the level of dopamine in the blood.
• Serotonin – its essence lies in the fact that the deviation is formed against the background of overly active work of serotonin receptors.
• Noradrenergic – schizophrenia in this case develops against the background of increased levels of adrenaline, dopamine and norepinephrine in the blood. The noradrenergic system is responsible for their production.

Schizophrenia is a serious mental disorder that affects a person’s usual life. In the absence of proper treatment, a woman in the advanced stages of the disease has obsessive ideas to commit suicide or cripple in order to save her loved ones.

Who is at risk

The age of manifestation of the first characteristic signs of schizophrenia in women is 23-25 years. Earlier manifestations in psychiatric practice are rare. In the case of childhood morbidity in girls, rapidly progressive personal destruction is observed, accompanied by severe dementia.

The first group includes women with an unstable nervous system . If mental tension persists for a long period of time, then in a state of severe stress, the first hallucinogenic visions may appear. At the first stage of schizophrenia, women do not have any complaints about their condition, since pathological personality changes are still minor. But after a while, relatives begin to notice characteristic oddities, which is a prerequisite for contacting a specialized specialist.

Can schizophrenia go away on its own?

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder of a polymorphic type, accompanied by an increased emotional reaction, a deterioration in the function of thinking, and other symptoms. Usually the disease is inherited. But it can occur due to somatic diseases, the influence of social factors. Often it is formed due to the negative effects of alcohol or drugs.

Tissue destruction is formed in the brain, so the patient has the first signs that develop more and more over time. Schizophrenia cannot go away on its own, it is not completely curable. Even if it is provoked by somatic factors, after their elimination, tissue damage will remain in the brain that can no longer be restored. Therefore, psychiatrists prescribe drugs that can control the condition during an exacerbation.

In the acute stage, schizophrenia is kept under control with drugs. But the patient periodically has a period of remission. This means that the signs of a mental disorder do not appear, the person feels normal. At this point, he may think that the pathology has ended, but in the near future there may be repeated attacks, exacerbation of the pathology.

paranoid schizophrenia

Paranoid schizophrenia is a mental disorder with characteristic distortions in the system of perception and thought. The dominant feature of this disease is the predominance of delusions and hallucinations in the overall clinical picture. The nature of the disease is not fully understood, scientists adhere to both the biochemical theory (the occurrence of a disorder due to disruption of the central nervous system) and the psychological one (the development of pathology against the background of mental trauma, neurosis, stress).

The course of the disease is very diverse and is accompanied by a number of specific syndromes and signs, the main of which is delirium. Symptoms and signs of paranoid schizophrenia in women at the height of the disease:

the presence of super ideas and a change in the habitual behavior of people;

The disease develops gradually, on the rise. In the initial period, obsessive and ritual actions, a desire to fence oneself off from social and professional activities, a sharp narrowing of the circle of contacts and interests, changes in emotional response may prevail.

Schizophrenia: stages, clinical manifestations and methods of treatment

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by the breakdown of thought processes, affects , impaired perception and emotional state of the patient.

The disease occurs with equal frequency in both men and women. On average, every hundredth person on the planet suffers from this mental disorder. The peak incidence occurs between the ages of 20 and 33.

Schizophrenia is often accompanied by depression, alcoholism and drug addiction. The disease often leads to social maladaptation and disability.

Causes of mental illness

The exact cause of schizophrenia has not yet been identified. It is believed that this is a multifactorial disease that develops under the influence of a number of provoking and predisposing factors:

Burdened heredity. In the presence of close relatives suffering from schizophrenia, the risk of its development in offspring increases by about 20 times.

Unfavorable social conditions such as poverty and unstable family environment.

Bad habits. Smoking, drug addiction, substance abuse and alcoholism do not so much cause the disease as accompany schizophrenia, complicating its course.

Complicated pregnancy (prematurity, intrauterine hypoxia or infections).

Emotional turmoil, especially in childhood. It has been proven that people who have experienced physical or sexual abuse are more likely to develop schizophrenia.

Anomalies in the development of the structures of the central nervous system. The autopsy of the dead patients showed that most of them had an expansion of the cerebral ventricles, a decrease in the volume of the frontal lobe, organic changes in the temporal gyri and the hippocampus.

There are other theories of the development of schizophrenia, which are not so popular and widespread.

stages

The disease in its development goes through several stages, each of which is characterized by certain typical manifestations.

Primordial. During this period, the personal qualities of a person, his behavior change. The patient becomes distrustful and too suspicious.

Prodromal. The patient withdraws into himself, limits himself as much as possible from others, stops communicating even with the closest people. At this stage, a person often loses his job due to his absent-mindedness, irresponsibility and lack of concentration.

First psychic episode. During this period, the patient is prone to obsessions and delusions, may see hallucinations.

Remission. This time period can have a different duration from a couple of weeks to several years.

After the completion of the first cycle, the periodic change of the 3rd and 4th stages begins. Gradually, the duration of remissions decreases, and exacerbations become longer and more severe.

Signs of schizophrenia

The development of vivid and characteristic clinical manifestations of schizophrenia is preceded by a premorbid period, which can last several years. During this time interval, relatives note that the person behaves somehow differently, has become more aggressive, withdrawn and distrustful.

The height of the disease is characterized by the development of two types of symptoms.

Positive symptoms

hallucinations. They can be auditory, when the patient hears voices that control his behavior, threaten him, order him to perform this or that action. Visual hallucinations are also possible, but are extremely rare.

Rave. This symptom is characterized by the patient’s belief that evil spirits or extraterrestrial beings influence him with the help of magic, hypnosis, or any technical devices that do not exist in reality. There may also be delusions of jealousy (confidence in treason), persecution (the patient thinks that he is being watched), self-flagellation (the patient is to blame for all earthly troubles), greatness (a person can present himself as the ruler of the world), dysmorphophobic (confidence in his own external deformity).

Obsessive ideas and movements.

Razonerstvo and lengthy reasoning. Patients are unable to concentrate on one topic, constantly jumping from one to another, often losing the thread of the story.

Negative symptoms

Emotional disorders and social isolation. Schizophrenics are immersed in themselves and completely protected from others.

Drift is the inability to make your own decisions. Patients copy the behavior of others.

Hypobulia . In patients, all needs are reduced, they don’t care what they have, they refuse to take a shower, their libido disappears.

Diagnostics

The diagnosis is based on the collection of an anamnesis of the disease when interviewing close relatives and friends of the patient. Major and minor clinical symptoms are also taken into account. The former include delusions and hallucinations. To the second – all the negative signs listed above.

Treatment of schizophrenia

The goals of treating patients with schizophrenia are:

Increasing social adaptation.

Improving the quality of life.

Stop the progression of the disease and reduce the number of exacerbations.

For the treatment of patients, methods of psychological, drug and non-drug effects are used.

Among the drugs used are antipsychotics of the first ( Chlorpromazine , Haloperidol) and second ( Clozapine , Paleperidon , Risperidone ) generations. Tranquilizers are also used.

Non-drug treatments include electroconvulsive therapy and transcranial magnetic stimulation. The effectiveness of these methods has not yet been fully proven, but their use statistically reduces the number, duration and severity of exacerbations of schizophrenia.

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