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Schizophrenia is a very serious mental illness. However, it can be treated. Apart from medications, the support of the patient by relatives is equally important for the therapy.
Schizophrenia often isolates you from the rest of the world. However, thanks to various methods of therapy, up to two thirds of patients can return to normal life. – We must not forget that in the treatment of schizophrenia, social support for patients is almost as important as drugs – believes prof. Jacek Wciórka from the Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology in Warsaw.
Symptoms of schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is often manifested by delusions, auditory or visual hallucinations, which disturb the perception of reality and make it difficult to understand for the patient. – Typical for a patient with schizophrenia are delusions that other people or forces that are difficult to define are controlling his thoughts, feelings and actions – explains the psychiatrist. All this means that contact with the sick person is not easy. The schizophrenic often tries to organize his perception of the world, but because it is disturbed, he makes mistakes. His behavior seems irrational to others. With time, therefore, misunderstood and isolated, he loses the willingness to contact his surroundings. On the surface it looks as if he is indifferent to everything, but it is not. A small proportion of patients display aggressive behavior. – Schizophrenia is also accompanied by memory or concentration disorders. However, it should be emphasized that the disease may vary in severity and course in everyone, adds the psychiatrist.
Treatment of schizophrenia
According to prof. Wciórka, thanks to the use of various methods of therapy, approximately 30 percent. sick people can function as healthy people. Another 30 percent. relative improvement is obtained. These patients, however, require more support from the environment, more frequent contacts with a doctor and a psychologist. To recover, however, you need to heal yourself. Meanwhile, not all patients start or continue treatment. The problem with treating schizophrenia is that patients stop taking their medication as soon as they feel better. They don’t want to take pills because they want to feel healthy or because they don’t need them. It also happens that they just forget to take the pill. Some patients also stopped pharmacotherapy due to bothersome side effects of drugs. The latest generation drugs do not cause such ailments anymore.
Pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy
Sometimes friends or family advise patients to stop taking medication as soon as they feel better, due to their lack of knowledge about the condition. It also happens that patients stop treatment altogether. It is very dangerous, so support and control of loved ones in such cases is necessary. The family of a schizophrenic should be in touch with his doctor and clarify all doubts with him. It is important that the patient’s relatives have a basic understanding of schizophrenia.
Apart from pharmacotherapy, the second tool in the treatment of this disease is individual psychological help. Its task is to show the patient the mistakes in recognizing reality. – Both pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy will not bring the expected results if the patient does not have support in the immediate environment. It is important that the patient is not alone in a psychotic crisis – emphasizes prof. Wciórka.
Lonely schizophrenics
Schizophrenics are often treated reluctantly, stigmatized and isolated by those around them. Sometimes insulted and ridiculed. According to the psychiatrist, this has a decisive impact on the lives of patients, as it leads to their isolation in hospitals and centers. The feeling of helplessness, loneliness and abandonment makes them mentally break down. Therefore, therapies are needed to help patients function in society, not on the fringes of society, concludes Prof. Wciórka.
Text: Halina Pilonis