Schizophrenia Treatment Options: Things You Need to Know

According to statistics from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), approximately one percent of the US population suffers from schizophrenia. Some common symptoms of this psychiatric condition include inability to make decision, hallucinations, emotional imbalance, disorganized speech and delusions. While there are a number of schizophrenia treatment methods, they will vary a lot from patient to patient based on the symptoms and severity of the disorder. Let’s take a look at some of the most common schizophrenia treatment options.

Schizophrenia Treatment: Your Options

Schizophrenia treatment is usually a life-long process. Although the disease can not be completely cured, the symptoms of the disease can be reduced to a large extent with proper treatment. Following are the three most effective methods of schizophrenia treatment.

1. Use of medication – Doctors often prescribe antipsychotic drugs for schizophrenia treatment. Some commonly prescribed drugs include thioridazine, haldol and fluphenazine. These drugs help to eliminate symptoms of delusions, paranoia, and hallucinations. However, frequent use of these medications may trigger side effects. As an alternative to these traditional drugs, many doctors are now prescribing atypical antipsychotic medications such as olanzapine, clozapine, ziprasidone, risperidone, paliperidone and quetiapine. However, such medications should be taken only with doctor’s advice.

2. Cognitive behavioral therapy – This treatment method focuses on the thought process and behavior of the patient. Professional therapists offer advice and guidance about how to change behavioral patterns. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is considered to be the most effective way of schizophrenia treatment. The idea is to help the patients learn some useful ways to cope with the disease or to reduce the symptoms naturally.

3. Rehabilitation – Some patients are recommended to attend rehabilitation center for quick recovery. Living in the rehab center helps the patients grow healthy living habits such as taking meals on time, learning to cook and growing communication skills.

4. Support from near ones – It is very important for schizophrenia patients to get proper support from the friends and family members. They can also join support groups. Friends and relatives of the patient can also help patients learn basic behaviors such as how to speak with dignity, how to eat, how to dress up and so on. All these can be quite effective when it comes to treating a patient of schizophrenia.

Intake of alcohol and other illegal drugs can make things worse for a patient. On the contrary, growing healthy lifestyle habits such as taking adequate amount of sleep can help improve quality of life for a schizophrenia patient. Lifestyle training can also have positive impact on the patients of schizophrenia.