Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a chronic, severe, and debilitating brain condition. People with the disorder may experience varied symptoms of Hallucination (Auditory/Visual), Delusions (people are spying or talking about me, may believe that other people are reading their minds or controlling their thoughts) with or without gross Behavioral disturbances (smiling/talking to self and or aggression).
In some cases people may look lost, confused & withdrawn from society without above mentioned symptoms.
Epidemiology
Lifetime prevalence of schizophrenia is 1%
Etiology (Reasons) of Developing Schizophrenia
- Genetic- chances of schizophrenia increases to 40% in child when both parents have schizophrenia
- Biochemical- It occurs due to disturbance of level of various neurochemicals like Dopamine, Serotonin GABA etc
- Psycho-social Stress
- Others- Like Drug abuse (Ganja etc), infection during pregnancy etc
Symptoms of schizophrenia
Broadly classified into: positive symptoms, negative symptoms, and cognitive symptoms
- Positive Symptoms
Hallucination is a false perception of objects or events involving ones senses: sight, sound, smell, touch and taste
Auditory hallucination is the most common type of hallucination in schizophrenia. People perceive voices which is not real. These voices may talk to the person about behavior, order the person, or warn him or her of danger. People may found talking when alone and making different gesture in air as if responding to someone.
Delusions are fixed, firm & false beliefs that are not part of the person’s culture and do not change even after other people prove that the beliefs are not true or logical.
People with schizophrenia can have delusions like neighbors can control their behavior with magnetic waves, that people on television are directing special messages to them etc
Thought disorders are unusual or dysfunctional ways of thinking.
Disorganized thinking- when a person has trouble organizing his or her thoughts or connecting them logically
Thought blocking- when a person stops speaking abruptly in the middle of a thought.
- Negative Symptoms
- Expressionless
- Lack of pleasure in everyday life
- Lack of ability to begin and sustain planned activities
- Lack of Social interaction
- Poor self-hygiene
- Cognitive symptoms
- Poor functional ability to process information and to make decisions
- Trouble concentrating or paying attention
- Memory issues
Treatment by Schizophrenia
Treatment by Schizophrenia requires multipronged actions & should be tailored according to the need of the patients with Pharmacotherapy and Psycho-social interventions.
Pharmacotherapy-Antipsychotic medications like Risperidone, Olanzapine, Clozapine etc.
Psychosocial treatments-Psychosocial treatments can help patients who are already stabilized on antipsychotic medication. It help patients to deal with every day’s life based problems, to overcome difficulty in communication & maintaining relationships, self-care etc.
Rehabilitation – Rehabilitation emphasizes social and vocational training to help people with schizophrenia function better in their communities.
Family education – one of the important part of the multipronged action to prevent burn-out of the family and to maintain the compliance of treatment.
Self-help groups – Self-help groups for people with schizophrenia and their families are becoming more common. People in self-help groups know that others are facing the same problem hence encourage each other.
Why is Dr. Satish Kumar the Best Doctor for treatment of Schizophrenia?
Dr. Satish Kumar is one among the best Psychiatrists in Delhi NCR who is graduated from apex institute of India, AIIMS, Delhi. He has done his MD Psychiatry from AIIMS Delhi & also worked as Research Officer in Drug De-addiction AIIMS, Delhi. He has more than 12 years of experience in the field of Psychiatry and is well experienced in identifying, diagnosing and treating the various brain related problems and psychiatric issues. Dr. Satish Kumar is very calm and composed while dealing with the patients and give 30-45 minutes time to every session for proper assessment and understanding the patient’s medical history and to discuss various mental/psychological issues they are currently facing. Following this, patient is prescribed proper medicines and counselling if required.