Residual schizophrenia: when the past won’t let go

To date, psychiatry uses several options for classifying schizophrenic disorders. Some are based on the totality of certain symptoms, others on the intensity of their manifestations. Still others are on the variants of the perception of the disease by the patient himself and his relatives. One of these forms, which occurs quite often in patients in remission, is residual schizophrenia. Yes, we were not mistaken. Despite the fact that schizophrenia is considered an incurable disease and worsens over time, schizophrenics also have peculiar remission periods.

This is your chronic

In residual schizophrenia, patients experience a full set of symptoms over a period of time. Then their manifestation weakens and becomes minimal, many, by the way, return to normal life, create families and go to work. But the absence of pronounced symptoms should not reassure the relatives of the patient, since it is they who still feel the negative consequences. To the patient, on the contrary, it may seem that everything is fine.

In clinical psychiatry, this form of the disease can be considered latent, chronic, protracted or sluggish. It is very difficult to recognize residual schizophrenia without a diagnosis from a specialist, although even people without special education and experience can notice some signs, for example:

  • Very low rates of psychomotor and physical activity, hypodynamia, lethargy, lethargy. One gets the impression that the person is very tired, did not get enough sleep, overtired.
  • Weak manifestation of emotions, inadequate, poorly expressed emotional reactions to external stimuli.
  • A high level of passivity in decision-making, the patient tries not to show any initiative.
  • Stylistically and semantically poor speech.
  • Stagnation of facial expressions, the inability to establish full-fledged non-verbal communication with the patient, wandering eyes, frequent changes in posture and voice modulation.
  • Low level of social productivity.
  • Sloppiness, neglect of personal hygiene.

How to help a person with residual schizophrenia if you are not a psychiatrist?

Of course, the full and effective treatment of residual schizophrenia, which is considered a residual phenomenon after acute mental disorders, is the prerogative of experienced specialists. Self-medication here is not only ineffective — it is dangerous. However, close people can improve the quality of the patient, and hence their own life, in ways that are feasible and harmless to the patient’s condition.

An important stage of recovery after such a disease is social adaptation and reduction of other negative consequences for the patient’s psyche. You can fix the positive result of drug treatment and psychotherapy courses by implementing one of the available options for stabilizing the patient’s condition:

Residual schizophrenia: when the past won’t let go

  • Keep a positive mood, do not try to remember the period of the acute stage of the disease in the presence of the patient. You can make a person feel guilty for causing suffering to loved ones, which will only worsen his condition.
  • Since the person has a suppressed emotional sphere, focus on pleasant activities that do not require the active manifestation of emotions. Getting satisfaction through the solution of logical or everyday problems, a person will experience relief and pleasure from the work done.
  • Let the patient engage in any kind of creativity available to him. Through drawing or singing, playing musical instruments or working with clay, a person gains mental balance, learns again to concentrate on details, remember the sequence of actions, and achieve results.

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