Treatments of Schizophrenia
Evaluate the key drugs used to treat schizophrenia.
Schizophrenia is one of the most common severe mental disorders effecting between 0.5% and 1% of the population (Sartorius at al, 1986) and is greatly discussed as not being a single condition but rather a combination of related issues and has several criteria’s in existence to help in the diagnosis. DSM-IV-TR (APA 2000) states that two or more symptoms including delusions, hallucinations, disorganised speech, catatonic behaviour or negative symptoms for a period of one month. An alternative diagnosis is which symptoms cluster together and whether they form disorganised, positive and negative symptoms (Liddle et al. 1994). Current treatments for schizophrenia are divided into drug treatments, psychological and social management and electroconvulsive therapy.
Drug treatments have developed around the biological explanations of the causes of Schizophrenia. There are ample studies around but problems with some of the research in this area such as supporting research; Johnstone (2000) for the dopamine hypothesis. This research was carried out on people that already suffered from schizophrenia and therefore these individuals would have already be taking some form of drug treatment, which may cause side effects that resembled symptoms and stress of the disorder would likely impact on the results of the research. Drug treatments has been researched thoroughly and it is practical to say that they are effective in the treatment of positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia.
The key drug treatments in schizophrenia are antipsychotic medication. They have been around since the 1950’s and comprise of two main types, the older typical antipsychotics and the newer atypical antipsychotics. These are the most effective drug treatments available and majority of people with schizophrenia show significant improvement of positive and negative symptoms when treated with these drugs such as hallucinations and
Schizophrenia is one of the most common severe mental disorders effecting between 0.5% and 1% of the population (Sartorius at al, 1986) and is greatly discussed as not being a single condition but rather a combination of related issues and has several criteria’s in existence to help in the diagnosis. DSM-IV-TR (APA 2000) states that two or more symptoms including delusions, hallucinations, disorganised speech, catatonic behaviour or negative symptoms for a period of one month. An alternative diagnosis is which symptoms cluster together and whether they form disorganised, positive and negative symptoms (Liddle et al. 1994). Current treatments for schizophrenia are divided into drug treatments, psychological and social management and electroconvulsive therapy.
Drug treatments have developed around the biological explanations of the causes of Schizophrenia. There are ample studies around but problems with some of the research in this area such as supporting research; Johnstone (2000) for the dopamine hypothesis. This research was carried out on people that already suffered from schizophrenia and therefore these individuals would have already be taking some form of drug treatment, which may cause side effects that resembled symptoms and stress of the disorder would likely impact on the results of the research. Drug treatments has been researched thoroughly and it is practical to say that they are effective in the treatment of positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia.
The key drug treatments in schizophrenia are antipsychotic medication. They have been around since the 1950’s and comprise of two main types, the older typical antipsychotics and the newer atypical antipsychotics. These are the most effective drug treatments available and majority of people with schizophrenia show significant improvement of positive and negative symptoms when treated with these drugs such as hallucinations and
References: American Psychiatric Association (APA) (1992) Tardive Dyskinesia: a task force report of the American Psychiatric Association. American Psychiatric Association (APA) (2000) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edn, text revision (DSM-IV-TR) Washington, DC:APA. CATIE. (2011, March 01) Questions and Answers About the NIMH Clinical Antipsychotic Trials of Intervention Effectiveness Study (CATIE) — Phase 1 Results http://www.nimh.nih.gov/trials/practical/catie/phase1results.shtml Ho, B.-C., Andreasen, N. C., Ziebell, S., Pierson, R. & Magnotta, V. (2011) Arch. Gen. Psychiatry 68, 128-137. Johnstone, L Liddle, P., Carpenter, W.T. and Crow, T. (1994) Syndromes of schizophrenia: classic literature, British Journal of Psychiatry, 165: 721-7. Pehek, EA., Nocjar, C., Roth, B.L. et al (2006) Evidence for the preferential involvement of 5-HT2A serotonin receptors in stress – and drug-induced dopamine release in the rat medial prefrontal cortex, Neuropsychopharmacolog, 31:265-77.