Schizophrenia causes, symptoms and treatments? Are young people more susceptible to disease due to stress? What prodromal symptoms should we pay attention to?
What is schizophrenia? Is excessive stress prone to illness?
“Schizophrenia” is a type of mental illness in which brain dysfunction causes changes in thinking, emotion, perception, and behavior, affecting the patient’s “thinking ability” and “perceptual function.” Compared with mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety, schizophrenia has more obvious functional abnormalities in thinking, perception, and logic, and may be combined with emotional symptoms, and may even cause obvious reality impairment and the inability to communicate normally with others.
There are many causes of schizophrenia, and research shows that heredity increases the risk of the disease. Genes may be innate factors that affect nerve conduction abnormalities. When the stressful life events acquired exceed the capacity of the body, it may cause schizophrenia. From this perspective, schizophrenia is related to the complex interaction of genes and environment, as well as the stressful events faced by the individual.
Schizophrenia tends to occur at a young age. Statistically, the peak onset period for men is about 15 to 25 years old, and the age of onset for women is about 5 to 10 years later than for men. Abnormal brain function regulation, including excessive dopamine function and glutamate dysfunction, may be the causes of the disease. However, differences in individuals’ resistance to stressful life events and tolerance to setbacks when they are young make schizophrenia more likely to occur in young people.
Are there signs of schizophrenia? Are prodromal symptoms difficult to detect?
There are four main categories of symptoms of schizophrenia. The first category is “positive symptoms”, with hallucinations and delusions being the most common. Loose thinking structure, weird speech and behavior may also occur; the second category is “negative symptoms”. , including expressionlessness, lack of motivation, talking less, and social withdrawal.
The third category is “cognitive symptoms”, in which patients may experience inattention, decreased executive ability, memory deterioration, and poor reasoning and judgment abilities; the fourth category is “emotional symptoms”, in which patients may experience poor emotional stability and mood swings. large, and inappropriate emotional expressions such as inexplicable anxiety, tension, fear, etc.
Some schizophrenia symptoms have “prodrome” before the onset of positive symptoms, which are not easy for ordinary people to notice. For example, they become withdrawn and do not interact with others, do not pay attention to personal appearance and hygiene, or they may be unwilling to get along with others due to social shyness. As a result, there are fewer and fewer friends. Due to abnormal brain function, school performance may decline or inability to concentrate in studies may occur. When students develop the above-mentioned symptoms during their studies, parents may easily think that they are caused by academic pressure. They should pay attention to their children’s symptoms as early as possible and seek medical treatment in a timely manner, which is very important for subsequent stable treatment.
Diagnosis of Schizophrenia? What tests are required?
If the two main types of symptoms of schizophrenia appear for more than one month and last for more than one month, it can help diagnose schizophrenia. The doctor will make a comprehensive diagnosis based on the patient’s psychiatric history and mental status, and consider arranging necessary examinations, including blood cell tests, brain imaging tests, brain wave tests, etc., to rule out abnormal mental status caused by other diseases or substance use.
The length of time it takes to diagnose schizophrenia is related to the time the patient develops it. It usually requires six months of observation when the disease first develops. If the disease develops half a year to a year before seeking medical treatment, or enters the acute phase with obvious positive symptoms, the time to confirm the diagnosis will be shortened.
Research shows that the sooner patients with schizophrenia receive appropriate diagnosis and stable treatment, the best prognosis and reduced recurrence rate will be. The Taiwan Psychiatric Association shared in the “Clinical Guidelines for the Development of Early Intervention and Long-acting Injections in Psychiatric Medicine in Taiwan” that the “Simple Self-Complete Scale for Preliminary Suspected Psychosis” can be used as a standard for initial self-screening. When the suspected symptoms match more of the items, the Early attention should be paid to whether it is schizophrenia or mental illness.
Can schizophrenia hurt people? Is lack of disease awareness the key?
A small number of patients with schizophrenia have insufficient awareness of their illness, and due to the impact of mental symptoms, they are prone to arbitrarily stopping medication or failing to cooperate with treatment, resulting in poor treatment effects or relapse. Patients with schizophrenia who are not properly treated may engage in self-injurious or injurious behaviors due to positive symptoms or the acute stage of the disease. Care must be taken with caution, but there is no need to overreact.
In the past, “compulsory hospitalization” intervention measures were adopted for cases with poor treatment of mental illness. Now that the “Mental Health Law” has been revised, compulsory hospitalization will be decided by judges in the future. At the same time, we actively set up community mental health centers to strengthen community support for mental illness and help patients return to society more smoothly.
In fact, most patients with schizophrenia are withdrawn and introverted, and do not have problems such as hurting others or themselves. Patients with stable treatment can return to normal life and return to work. The public should avoid stigmatizing mental illness due to a small number of poorly controlled cases. Patients and their families should understand the disease knowledge of schizophrenia and receive regular treatment.
Treatment for Schizophrenia? Is irregular medication harmful?
Medication treatments for schizophrenia include oral and long-acting injections, and may be combined with other medications depending on the patient’s condition. Clinically, some patients only need to take one oral pill to achieve stable control. There is a newer generation of long-acting injections, which are divided into one-month and three-month injections. Some studies have shown that long-acting injections can reduce hospitalization rates and improve medication compliance. Patients can discuss suitable treatment methods with their doctors.
Schizophrenia is a treatable disease. However, if patients do not take medication regularly, insufficient drug concentration in the blood will cause symptoms to fluctuate and even affect brain function that is difficult to recover. In severe cases, it will require repeated hospitalization and a “revolving door” will occur. Phenomenon. Patients with mental illness are reminded to understand the importance of regular treatment. The earlier treatment is given, the more stable the treatment effect will be.
The public’s fear of mental illness mostly comes from a lack of knowledge about the disease. In the future, mental health education should continue to be promoted to help junior high school and high school students understand the symptoms and treatment methods of mental illness. Parents are also reminded that when they notice mental symptoms in their children, they should not ignore the illness and avoid medical treatment. Early diagnosis and treatment can help their children stabilize their control and still have a good chance of returning to normal life.
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