Symptoms And Treatment Of Schizophrenia - 1955 Words

A quick overview of schizophrenia that I learned in the class was that it is a chronic brain disorder that affects the way that person goes about life such as, the way they think, feel and behave isn’t normal. About one in one hundred Americans are diagnosed with schizophrenia. Schizophrenia affects men and women equally, usually occurs between the ages fifth- teen to thirty. People with schizophrenia withdrawal themselves from reality as in they tend to hear or see things that don’t exist and at times say things completely off the wall. Day to day life can be very challenging and difficult for them because it can be so severe; that they have to rely on other people because they have a hard time keeping a job or even caring for†¦show more content†¦According to the article I read, called Negative symptoms in Schizophrenia by Velligan and Alphs (2008) stated that physicians may not be aware of the negative symptoms because medication visits are usually because of hallucinations and disorganized thoughts. In the article they gave an example one someone who spends his days watching television, he has no friends; he doesn’t do much physical activity and is visited by his father once a week. He says how he likes basketball but doesn’t watch or play it, also says how he wants to get a job but has done nothing to find one in years (Alphs, Velligan 2008). He is often seen for brief medication visits because there are no positive symptoms and no problems with acting out, only if need be a slight few changes may be made to his medications. Physicians won’t usually get information about negative symptoms unless they have time to observe and ask certain questions about the patient’s behavior. Ways to help negative symptoms would be social training skills. It is important to teach family and friends who deal with someone who has schizophrenia about the negative symptoms. When a family member or friend is more aware that la ck of motivation, flat affect which is when a person’s face doesn’t move or show any emotion and tend to talk in a dull voice, and reduced involvement in activity reflect symptoms of schizophrenia rather than problems with the character of the individual, this can reduce the likelihood that family or