Diagnosing and Treating Schizophrenia DSM-IV

Diagnosing and Treating Schizophrenia

DSM-IV was a report that was compiled in 1994 after and extensive research was conducted. The report detailed 297 disorders that are associated with clinical impairment or distress in the occupational, social and other areas that affected the daily lives of people.

The DSM-IV categorized the psychiatric diagnosis into five categories or axes according to All Psych, (2004) as follows:

Axis I: Included the clinical syndromes that included that main mental disorder like schizophrenia, depression, social phobia and other learning disorders.

Axis II: covered development disorders also known as intellectual disorder and personality disorders. The development disorders are more prevalent in childhood and can be long lasting and covered an individual's way of relating to the world. These ranged from antisocial, Borderline Personality Disorders and paranoid disorders.

Axis III: these are the physical conditions which are critical in the development and perpetuation of axis I and II. It examined the physical condition as the HIV status or brain injury that could affect the mental development such as acute medical conditions and physical disorders.

Axis IV: dealt with the psychosocial disorders and environmental factors that could affect an individual's mental development. These are events in the life of an individual like death of close relatives, new job stresses, lack of job, new relationships and so on, can impact on the Axis I and II.

Axis V: looked into the global assessment of children under 18 years. It is the highest level of assessment and looked into the levels of functioning at the present time and the previous highest level. This information helped in knowing how the individual was affected by the above conditions and the changes to be expected.

Schizophrenia is therefore defined as "a serious mental illness that affects how a person thinks, feels, and behaves. The person finds it difficult to tell the difference between real and imagined experiences, to think logically, to express feelings, or to behave appropriately." (Health Information Publications, 2011). It is a complex condition whose single cause has not been established but is said to range from hereditary factors, brain chemistry, abnormality within the brain and complications during pregnancy and birth.

This then calls for the possible ways of treating and containing it. It is however believed that schizophrenia cannot be totally cured but can widely be managed to reasonable levels where the victim can behave normally again.

Since there is no single cure, the treatment and management decisions vary from one person to another and are absolutely individualized as below:

(a). Antipsychotic Medications-also known as neuroleptic drugs work by jamming dopamine (a chemical messenger) receptors which plays a big part in schizophrenia and deters the effect as delusion and hallucination. These include Chlorpromazine (Thorazine), Thioridazine (Mellaril), Haloperidol (Haldol), Fluphenazine (Prolixin), Mesoridazine (Serentil), Perphenazine (Trilafon) and Trifluoperazine (Stelazine)

(b). Atypical Medications-is the newer medication to schizophrenia. The atypical drugs affect different areas from those affected by the antipsychotic drugs. These include Clozapine (Clozaril) -particularly effective in younger people, Risperidone (Risperdal) and Olanzapine (Zyprexa).

(c). other significant medication-these can also help suppress the symptoms and include Antidepressants, Antianxiety drugs, Lithium (for bipolar disorder) and Antiepileptic drugs.

(d). Electroconvulsive ("Shock") Therapy-where low voltage electric current is induced into the patient to cause seizure. It is of late considered to be safer than drug therapy.

(e). Psychotherapy- this is where the different professionals like the psychologists, some nurses, psychiatrists and social workers work together to study and help treat the patient along side using drugs. It exploits the cognitive behavior of the individual where the normal positive behavior is emphasized. It follows on the past thoughts, experiences, feelings, problems and relationships (Grohol, M., 2006).

(d). Rehabilitation-is where nonmedical means are exploited and the social and vocational contact and training is stressed upon. It helps the patients regain confidence of doing once more the activities like cooking that previously they lost confidence to do.