|
Loved One With Bipolar Disorder?
Discover How to Cope and Deal with
Your loved One's Bipolar Disorder
Do You Have Bipolar Disorder?
Learn the Secrets to Cope and Deal
With Your Bipolar Disorder
Child With Bipolar Disorder?
Learn How to REALLY Help
And Support Your Child
Dating Someone With Bipolar?
Secrets to a Successful
Relationship Revealed
Marrying Someone With Bipolar?
Learn How to Support Your Spouse
and
Avoid Common Mistakes
Need Money Because
of Bipolar Disorder?
Learn How to Be Successful Even if
You are Dealing with Bipolar Disorder
Drug Addiction and Bipolar Disorder
Secrets to Beating Drug Addiction
When Dealing with Bipolar Disorder
Need Affordable Health Insurance?
Information You Can't Live Without
If You are Dealing with Bipolar Disorder
In Debt Because of Bipolar Disorder?
Get out of debt fast!
Improve Your Emotional Health
Reduce Your Stress Levels and
Increase Your Brain Power
|
Schizophrenia
What About Psychosocial Treatments?
National Institute of Mental Health
Antipsychotic drugs have proven to be crucial in relieving the psychotic
symptoms of schizophrenia-hallucinations, delusions, and incoherence-but are not
consistent in relieving the behavioral symptoms of the disorder. Even when
patients with schizophrenia are relatively free of psychotic symptoms, many
still have extraordinary difficulty with communication, motivation, self-care,
and establishing and maintaining relationships with others. Moreover, because
patients with schizophrenia frequently become ill during the critical
career-forming years of life (e.g., ages 18 to 35), they are less likely to
complete the training required for skilled work. As a result, many with
schizophrenia not only suffer thinking and emotional difficulties, but lack
social and work skills and experience as well.
It is with these psychological, social, and occupational problems that
psychosocial treatments may help most. While psychosocial approaches have
limited value for acutely psychotic patients (those who are out of touch with
reality or have prominent hallucinations or delusions), they may be useful for
patients with less severe symptoms or for patients whose psychotic symptoms are
under control. Numerous forms of psychosocial therapy are available for people
with schizophrenia, and most focus on improving the patient's social
functioning-whether in the hospital or community, at home, or on the job. Some
of these approaches are described here. Unfortunately, the availability of
different forms of treatment varies greatly from place to place.
Schizophrenia Is Not "Split Personality"
There is a common notion that schizophrenia is the same as "split
personality"-a Dr. Jekyll-Mr. Hyde switch in character.
This is not correct.
Rehabilitation
Broadly defined, rehabilitation includes a wide array of non-medical
interventions for those with schizophrenia. Rehabilitation programs emphasize
social and vocational training to help patients and former patients overcome
difficulties in these areas. Programs may include vocational counseling, job
training, problem-solving and money management skills, use of public
transportation, and social skills training. These approaches are important for
the success of the community-centered treatment of schizophrenia, because they
provide discharged patients with the skills necessary to lead productive lives
outside the sheltered confines of a mental hospital.
Individual Psychotherapy
Individual psychotherapy involves regularly scheduled talks between the
patient and a mental health professional such as a psychiatrist, psychologist,
psychiatric social worker, or nurse. The sessions may focus on current or past
problems, experiences, thoughts, feelings, or relationships. By sharing
experiences with a trained empathic person-talking about their world with
someone outside it-individuals with schizophrenia may gradually come to
understand more about themselves and their problems. They can also learn to sort
out the real from the unreal and distorted. Recent studies indicate that
supportive, reality-oriented, individual psychotherapy, and cognitive-behavioral
approaches that teach coping and problem-solving skills, can be beneficial for
outpatients with schizophrenia. However, psychotherapy is not a substitute for
antipsychotic medication; it is most helpful once drug treatment first has
relieved a patient's psychotic symptoms.
Family Education
Very often, patients with schizophrenia are discharged from the hospital into
the care of their family; so it is important that family members learn all they
can about schizophrenia and understand the difficulties and problems associated
with the illness. It is also helpful for family members to learn ways to
minimize the patient's chance of relapse-for example, by using different
treatment adherence strategies-and to be aware of the various kinds of
outpatient and family services available in the period after hospitalization.
Family "psychoeducation," which includes teaching various coping
strategies and problem-solving skills, may help families deal more effectively
with their ill relative and may contribute to an improved outcome for the
patient.
Self-Help Groups
Self-help groups for people and families dealing with schizophrenia are
becoming increasingly common. Although not led by a professional therapist,
these groups may be therapeutic because members provide continuing mutual
support as well as comfort in knowing that they are not alone in the problems
they face. Self-help groups may also serve other important functions. Families
working together can more effectively serve as advocates for needed research and
hospital and community treatment programs. Patients acting as a group rather
than individually may be better able to dispel stigma and draw public attention
to such abuses as discrimination against the mentally ill.
Family and peer support and advocacy groups are very active and provide
useful information and assistance for patients and families of patients with
schizophrenia and other mental disorders.
NIH - 1999
Posted 04/09/2004
|
If you are in a crisis please call:
1-800-SUICIDE (784-2433) or
1-800-273-TALK (8255) |
|
