Schizophrenia is a mental illness that affects at least 27 million people in the world, and affects even more people in underdeveloped countries. As a psychotic disorder, its symptoms include a loss of reality, hallucinations, delusions, and thought disruptions. This disease has no cure, and persons can be diagnosed with schizophrenia as early as 16 years old. There are many traditional treatments for schizophrenia that help relieve the patients’ symptoms, such as the use of psychoactive drugs. However, many patients diagnosed with schizophrenia have problems adhering to their medication, or even taking it to begin with; they believe the medication does not help them, since they are unable to understand the severity of their disorder. New treatments
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Schizophrenia is known to cause social deficits in some people; they keep to themselves, and their face is often seen as unapproachable. Researchers at the Universities of Montreal, Quebec, and Sherbrooke studied psychosocial help as a way to help manage the symptoms of schizophrenia. A new approach to treat the symptoms is cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), which is also known as therapy with a trained psychologist. The main goal of CBT is to help schizophrenics decipher their psychotic beliefs, and understand perception and their behavior. While using CBT to treat schizophrenia, a person 's symptoms are relieved, but more importantly, a person improves themselves, begins to see themselves in a better light, and learns more about their illness and what to do to treat it (Lecomte, Corbière, Simard & Leclerc, 2014). The American Psychology Association believes the familial setting provided in therapy also helps the patient. It is important the family participates in therapy and becomes educated about the illness to help make certain loved ones take their medication, reduce stress, and provide them with a welcoming environment (Gingerich, Bellack, 1995). It is important that therapy is introduced because it helped the family and the patient. In a study done by a doctor and professor at the mental health and neurological disorders …show more content…
Promentis Pharmaceuticals is a company that develops prescription medication for treating schizophrenia and other central nervous system disorders. They have an obvious bias towards taking medication as they strive to cure mental illnesses with medication. In fact, they also have received a grant from the National Institute of Health to make sure they develop more “effective drugs in treating schizophrenia” (Gallagher, 2012, p. 1). The main goal of Promentis Pharmaceuticals is to use prescription medications to treat the symptoms of schizophrenia (Promentis, 2014). However, only using prescription medications will not properly treat a patient 's symptoms of schizophrenia. A researcher and professors from the Chongqing Mental Health Center in China gave their controlled group a prescription medication only, and gave their experimental group prescription medication and psychosocial help. Their results found that subjects in their experimental group had a considerably lower relapse rate than their controlled counterparts (Ling, Jianchu, Xueqin, Jihong, & Bo, 2013). This experiment showed that people prefer, and actually do better, when given a combination of both medication and psychosocial help. It is great that companies such as Promentis Pharmaceuticals are finding new ways to treat schizophrenia, however, to believe medication is the only way it can be treated is wrong.
Schizophrenia is known to cause social deficits in some people; they keep to themselves, and their face is often seen as unapproachable. Researchers at the Universities of Montreal, Quebec, and Sherbrooke studied psychosocial help as a way to help manage the symptoms of schizophrenia. A new approach to treat the symptoms is cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), which is also known as therapy with a trained psychologist. The main goal of CBT is to help schizophrenics decipher their psychotic beliefs, and understand perception and their behavior. While using CBT to treat schizophrenia, a person 's symptoms are relieved, but more importantly, a person improves themselves, begins to see themselves in a better light, and learns more about their illness and what to do to treat it (Lecomte, Corbière, Simard & Leclerc, 2014). The American Psychology Association believes the familial setting provided in therapy also helps the patient. It is important the family participates in therapy and becomes educated about the illness to help make certain loved ones take their medication, reduce stress, and provide them with a welcoming environment (Gingerich, Bellack, 1995). It is important that therapy is introduced because it helped the family and the patient. In a study done by a doctor and professor at the mental health and neurological disorders …show more content…
Promentis Pharmaceuticals is a company that develops prescription medication for treating schizophrenia and other central nervous system disorders. They have an obvious bias towards taking medication as they strive to cure mental illnesses with medication. In fact, they also have received a grant from the National Institute of Health to make sure they develop more “effective drugs in treating schizophrenia” (Gallagher, 2012, p. 1). The main goal of Promentis Pharmaceuticals is to use prescription medications to treat the symptoms of schizophrenia (Promentis, 2014). However, only using prescription medications will not properly treat a patient 's symptoms of schizophrenia. A researcher and professors from the Chongqing Mental Health Center in China gave their controlled group a prescription medication only, and gave their experimental group prescription medication and psychosocial help. Their results found that subjects in their experimental group had a considerably lower relapse rate than their controlled counterparts (Ling, Jianchu, Xueqin, Jihong, & Bo, 2013). This experiment showed that people prefer, and actually do better, when given a combination of both medication and psychosocial help. It is great that companies such as Promentis Pharmaceuticals are finding new ways to treat schizophrenia, however, to believe medication is the only way it can be treated is wrong.