- Hi, everyone. In today's video, I'm
going to be going over the various treatment options
when it comes to managing and treating schizophrenia. (bright upbeat music) Welcome back to the Living Well
With Schizophrenia channel. My name is Lauren and I make
videos about what it's like to live with schizoaffective
disorder or schizophrenia. And if you'd like to see
more videos like this one, make sure to subscribe to our channel so as not to miss any future content. Also if you would like to
help support the creation of future content like
this one, please make sure to check out the link to our Patreon page, which is in the description below. Any support is really
appreciated. Thank you. So schizophrenia is kind of a illness that requires kinda lifelong treatment even after symptoms and
whatnot have subsided. And it kind of requires
treatment with medication and different kinds of
psychosocial interventions are going to help stabilize an
individual with schizophrenia over the course of their life and will help to manage
symptoms over the longterm. And so today we are going to be discussing more about what these medication options and different psychosocial
interventions look like. A psychiatrist experienced
in treating schizophrenia usually oversees the treatment of someone, of a patient with schizophrenia,
but there may also be other team members involved
in their treatment as well such as a psychologist, a social worker, a psychiatric nurse,
occupational therapists anything kinda like
that may help to improve the psychosocial component of
the individual's treatment. And these care teams are
often available at clinics or whatnot that specialize in the treatment of schizophrenia. So jumping into the different types of treatment options
available for schizophrenia, the first one that I wanna
draw your attention to is what's referred to as
early psychosis intervention. And so this is kind of geared
toward people who are having their first or maybe even
second episode of psychosis and they're really early
on in their journey because there's a lot of
evidence that the earlier you can intervene in a person's journey or experience with schizophrenia,
the better prognosis and the better outcomes there
are going to be long-term. And so there are a lot of
clinics that are geared towards this type of early intervention. So now, regardless of whether
it's someone's first episode of psychosis, or later on
multiple episodes of psychosis, sometimes it's kind of
gets to a period of crisis where the symptoms are very overwhelming and the individual is not able
to manage them on their own. And in these cases hospitalization may be required as a form of treatment. Hospitalization may be
required to ensure basic things like an individual's safety,
or medication compliance, or proper nutrition, or adequate sleep, or basic hygiene and just
restabilizing someone in those basic terms. Now, regardless of whether it's
early psychosis intervention or hospitalization, one of the
things that is likely going to come up the two, is the introduction or the rebalancing or
whatnot of medication. So medication is thought to be kind of one of the cornerstones of the
treatment of schizophrenia. And most commonly
anti-psychotics are prescribed for the treatment of schizophrenia. Anti-psychotics are
thought to control symptoms by effecting the brain
neurotransmitter, dopamine. Now, there are a multitude
of reasons why someone may be a little bit adverse
to taking medications, but severe side effects are very common with anti-psychotic medications. And so this is one of
the reasons why someone may be a little bit more
reluctant to take them. And so for this reason, there are different
options for getting it. So I had problem with
adherence to oral medications. And so me and my doctor decided to switch to an injection format of
medication so that I didn't have to constantly make that choice every day about whether or not I was
going to take the medication. It was just kind of a
once a month sort of thing that I went to the doctor's
office, they gave me my injection, went home and
I was good for another month. So there's different options
available for medications. So I will get into those a little bit. So in terms of oral medications, there are what's called
first-generation anti-psychotics and second generation anti-psychotics. And basically the first
generation anti-psychotics are a little bit older
and they generally have more severe side effects
because they're older. The newer anti-psychotics are the second generation anti-psychotics and typically patients see
fewer side effects with these. However, they are more expensive than the second generation
anti-psychotics. So that is something to consider in terms of long-term usage. And then of course there are
the long-acting injectables which I mentioned, which
typically are administered anywhere from two to four weeks and some even are every three weeks or so. And so these are becoming more
popular as an option as well. Those anti-psychotics are the ones that are typically prescribed. They can also be prescribed... Patients with schizophrenia
can also sometimes be prescribed things like antidepressants or mood stabilizers or
anti-anxiety medications to kind of either address
some of the side effects or to address some of the other components of their symptoms. Now, as I mentioned before,
medication is really kinda the cornerstone to
treatment of schizophrenia. And oftentimes it is kind of
the first line of defense. When someone is presenting
with symptoms of schizophrenia it's kind of what doctors go
to in order to get the person to a more stable place where
we can then introduce things like psychosocial interventions
and other treatment options like that to compliment
the medication usage. And so they are very effective at helping to stabilize
someone and get them to a place where they are
able to work on more of the psychosocial interventions. They don't always get rid
of the symptoms completely, which is why it is important
to include other facets to your treatment as well. So moving on to some more kinda medical intervention treatment approaches, there is what's called
electroconvulsive therapy or ECT. So the way this works is that the patient is put under general
anesthesia and electrodes are attached to either one side
or two sides of their temple and they are administered
a small electric shock to induce a small seizure. ECT is ideally meant to lead to an improvement in mood and thinking. However, there's really not a lot known about the actual mechanism
of how ECT works. It's just kind of something that doctors have seen some success in with patients and so they kinda keep doing it. And it is used more typically
for people with depression because it affects the
mood more pronouncedly, but it is still used sometimes for people with schizophrenia,
but less than it used to be. A course of ECT treatments
is usually administered two to three times or so
per week for several weeks. So I, myself got ECT when I
was first kinda going through, while I was actually diagnosed
with bipolar at the time. And so they administered me ECT to help me manage that because medications weren't really working
for me at that time. And I got 12 treatments over
the course of four weeks. It didn't really work for
me. It didn't do much for me. And I kinda had some
memory deficit problems as well following it. But, I have heard from
a lot of other people that it has done wonders for them. And so I think it's something
that you really need to make a personal decision about and you really need to
talk it through extensively with your doctor, if it is something that you are wanting to consider trying. It is used for patients with
schizophrenia when medications are no longer working or if
severe depression or catatonia is affecting the ability
to treat the illness. So another kind of medical intervention in terms of treatment is
transcranial magnetic stimulation or TMS treatment. TMS involves a series
of short magnetic pulses directed to the brain to
stimulate nerve cells. Now, contrary to ECT, with
TMS the patient remains awake the entire time and there's no need for general anesthesia or anything. They're just kinda
sitting in a comfy chair and a treatment can last anywhere from five minutes to 60 minutes. And generally a treatment course is approximately four to six weeks. All right, so those are kind
of the medical interventions in terms of the treatment
of schizophrenia. And now I want to move on to the more psychosocial
interventions that are available and encouraged for the
treatment of schizophrenia. So one of the kind of cornerstones of psychosocial intervention
is individual therapy. And so there are a lot
of ways this can look, but typically it's done
with a psychologist, or a social worker, or
a counselor of some sort who can provide some sort
of individual therapy with a person. And another kind of
effective type of treatment that they can offer through this is cognitive behavioral therapy or CBT. This can help the person change
their thinking and behavior and a psychologist or a
therapist of some sort will help the patient
to identify ways to... Identify when their symptoms
are flaring up and address or change their behavior
and how they respond to it. And through medication
and individual therapy and CBT and whatnot, an
individual can be better equipped to identify when symptoms are flaring up and know how to reduce those symptoms or manage those symptoms. So this type of CBT has been
particularly helpful for me in terms of dealing with
voices and hallucinations. Where I am experiencing hallucination, and I am now equipped with the tools to kinda question that a little bit more and really to be more
critical of what's going on and to think more logically
about, is this really possible? and how should I be reacting
to the situation if not? Another thing that you can work on with an individual therapist
is social skills training. There are a lot of different
ways where schizophrenia can affect an individual's ability to interact and engage socially. And so, really working
to work on these skills with the individual will
help them to better flourish in life and build more solid relationships that will offer more support to them when navigating their illness. Family therapy is another type of therapy that can be really effective
and helpful for a person who is experiencing schizophrenia, because having the people around you, the people closest to you, your family or whoever you identify your family as in terms of getting family therapy, can be really helpful in
terms of providing education to the people who are ideally supporting the person with schizophrenia
and also just learning ways to communicate effectively together in terms of best creating
a an environment of support for the person with schizophrenia. And also teaching them how to communicate with their support network what they need or what they're struggling
with and just creating a more healthy dynamic
in terms of the people who are closest to you. Vocational rehabilitation
and supported employment is also kind of a really
important thing that often goes overlooked in the
treatment of schizophrenia. The onset of schizophrenia
is early adulthood. And that is when people
are building their careers and are getting a foothold in terms of what they wanna do with their lives and how they want to be employed. That's a big part of their
lives in that period of time where symptoms are presenting
and the symptoms make it really hard to maintain employment. And so working on strategies
for this with the individual and working on obtaining some
kind of supported employment to help them maintain
that sense of purpose and be self-sufficient in
that way is really important. There are a lot of benefits that being employed provides a person. It provides a sense of purpose
in terms of contributing to society in some way. It provides a routine in terms of knowing what the person needs to do in a day and what they need to accomplish in a day. It provides social connection
and social engagement with their peers and
coworkers and whatnot. And there are a lot of benefits to helping someone work
toward being employed. Another thing that
really, really helped me in my own journey of
recovery and my own treatment is peer support groups or self-help groups and that kinda thing. I can't overstate how important it is to be able to have
dialogue with your peers who are going through
similar things as you. That was kinda the turning point for me in one of my relapses. Connecting with other people
who could really empathize with what I was going through. And I could share things
without fear of judgment and without fear of being
met with negative stigma or that kinda thing was
really, really powerful. And so I think that peer support
groups are hugely valuable in terms of treatment options for people who are living with schizophrenia
or any mental illness or any difficulty really at all. If you can find a peer support
group where you feel accepted and understood, that is huge. I think another component
that's really powerful to the peer support model
is just the elimination of the power dynamic that exists when you're getting treatment
from a medical professional or a medical team. When there is that power dynamic involved where you feel like your
psychiatrist or whoever has control over your treatment
and your course of care, that can seriously affect what you share and how you approach your treatment and your recovery journey and whatnot. And so, eliminating that power
dynamic and being surrounded by your peers is again, really powerful in terms of opening you up to sharing more and really getting at the
root of what's going on. And I really think that peer support can help encourage
self-acceptance around the illness and better insight into your
own experience of your illness. Another kinda psychosocial intervention that's a little bit more formalized is the assertive community
treatment teams or ACT teams. They help people with schizophrenia, people with various mental illnesses, but people with schizophrenia
to stay within the community instead of needing to
access emergency services like the hospital and whatnot. And they work on these various life skills that we've been talking
about and they work on medication compliance
and all that kind of stuff with the individual in their own home or in whatever environment
they feel most comfortable in. Now, I have never had any
experience with ACT teams but I think that they would
have been hugely helpful for me at various periods
throughout my illness when things were either
getting a little bit harder or when I was coming out of the hospital as just kinda more of
that wraparound treatment. Now, something else that's
a little bit more formalized in nature that is garnering
more and more attention lately especially in places like the UK, is what's called social prescribing. And now this is something that
I got really excited about during my schooling as a new concept in terms of providing more
psychosocial interventions to people who are living
with severe mental illnesses. And basically what this
entails is a doctor or a healthcare professional moving beyond just prescribing medications and being able to prescribe various social intervention
components to care as well. So that could be like
prescribing art classes, or prescribing a gym membership, or some kind of physical activity courses. Different things that may help
a person feel more engaged within their community and more
full, full as a human being. And so working on the
psychosocial component as a means of prescribing to
people who maybe don't have those things within their
reach, financially or otherwise, instead of just prescribing medication. Now there's a lot of
criticism on this concept where people are kinda
leery about the government or public health infrastructure paying for people's art classes or gym memberships or that kinda thing. And seeing that more as
something that is more on the individual to
provide for themselves instead of the government. And I get this criticism,
however, it's really important to understand that when
we are supporting a person in this way, it actually ends
up costing the system less because this individual
is more stable overall and is using less emergency
services like the hospital, is potentially more able to
be self-sufficient financially in terms of having employment and thus not needing as much
government support financially. And just various factors like that, that just reduce the
amount of expenditures that the government is
actually spending on them. A study in the UK found that
for every pound that was spent on these social prescribing programs, two pounds was returned
in terms of social gains. And so there is evidence that these are both fiscally responsible
and also are just better in terms of a more holistic
approach to the treatment of mental illnesses like schizophrenia. So there are more kinda social
psychosocial interventions that an individual can
work on on their own. And this can include things like, maintaining proper nutrition, getting enough physical
activity or exercise, getting enough sleep. These are kind of the cornerstones
of maintaining wellness in terms of the psychosocial components of treatment for schizophrenia. These are really, really important. I know for me, sleep is probably
the most important factor in terms of my treatment. Making sure that I am maintaining
a regular sleep schedule and also getting enough sleep
each day is really important in terms of managing my symptoms. And then of course, things
like nutrition just help with overall health and overall
mental clarity and whatnot. And exercise is something that is also really,
really important for me in terms of maintaining mental clarity and just taking care of my mind and body. Getting outside for exercise. I really love to run
and I love to run trios. And so this is just a really
grounding balancing activity for me that I really, really
enjoy and find great value in. I mentioned briefly routine
in terms of employment, but there are a lot of other ways that you can create routine
within your own life. Whether it's meal times or
what you do with your day, or how you structure your
day, or even just as basic as when you go to sleep
or that kinda thing, just building in some sort of routine, I find for me, really helps
in terms of my treatment and management of my symptoms. Another important, and
sometimes overlooked component of treatment is surrounding yourself with a great support network
through friends or family or whoever that may be for you. This is really important in
terms of feeling integrated within a community, feeling
loved and cared for. I think this is important for anyone, regardless of if you have
a mental illness or not, to feel that form of connection with other people in your life. Friends and family can also
kinda help to intervene or notice when things are
starting to slip or go awry or symptoms are becoming more pronounced. I think also the more people
you can include in this network of support and the more
people you can be open about your illness with, I
think the further society is gonna go in terms
of reduction of stigma around mental illnesses
like schizophrenia. I think this can only serve to help with the increase of self-acceptance around having a mental
illness like schizophrenia. I think that that is
a huge hurdle to jump. And you know, that maybe that say it wrong because I don't think that it's just merely a hurdle to jump. I think it's a lifelong process. Self-acceptance is definitely
something to pay attention to and work toward in terms of your treatment when it comes to managing
your schizophrenia. So something that has
helped me along this journey of self-acceptance, is
working on educating myself and working on illness insight. And so this can take the form
of more immediately looking for information about schizophrenia or about the mental
illness that you may have and better educating
yourself on what it means to have this illness and
engaging in that information with your own experiences
about what it has been like to navigate this illness. But beyond educating yourself
specifically on the illness, I think that broader
education has really helped me in being able to think more
critically about my symptoms, about what it means to have schizophrenia, about my role in the world, and how that interplays
with having schizophrenia. And I think it has just better equipped me to be able to develop coping skills and to develop resilience
when it comes to navigating having a mental illness
like schizophrenia. So that wraps up what I
wanted to touch on in terms of the treatment options
available for schizophrenia. I just want to draw your attention again to the importance of early
psychosis intervention and how if at all possible,
this is really pivotal in terms of the treatment
of schizophrenia. However, medication is also kind of seen as the cornerstone of
treatment of schizophrenia. And so it's a really important
component most of the time. However, there are
definitely other components that need to be present to
compliment the medication and to increase their
ability to adequately treat the person's symptoms and to manage the person's schizophrenia. So thank you so much
for watching this video. I hope it was helpful in some way. If it was, please give us a thumbs up and also make sure to subscribe so as not to miss any future videos. Also again, if you would like
to help support the creation of future videos like this one, please make sure to check out
the link, our Patreon page which is in the description below. Thank you so much for watching
and as always wishing you and your loved ones, good health. See you in the next video. Bye.
