Medicine for schizophrenia, does it exist?

Question

This is really random, and I'm not asking for anyone who does suffer from schizophrenia, but is there a medicine for it, and if it does exist, what is it called?

Answer 1

there are lots of them...

Answer 2

ABILIFY(aripiprazole) is a prescription medicine for the treatment of schizophrenia. Schizophrenia affects over two million Americans and is thought to be caused by an imbalance of key chemicals in the brain. Although a cure has yet to be found, with medicines like ABILIFY, your symptoms can improve.
ABILIFY helps improve a range of the symptoms associated with schizophrenia, which may include hearing voices, unclear thinking, having uncomfortable or disturbing thoughts, feeling confused, and lacking interest in the things you previously enjoyed.

Answer 3

Currently schizophrenia has not been cured although many psychiatrists and psychologists believe that it can be managed. The first line pharmacological therapy for schizophrenia is usually the use of antipsychotic medication. The concept of 'curing' schizophrenia is controversial as there are no clear criteria for what might constitute a cure, although some criteria for the remission of symptoms have recently been suggested63. Therefore, antipsychotic drugs are only thought to provide symptomatic relief from the positive symptoms of psychosis. The newer atypical antipsychotic medications (such as clozapine, risperidone, olanzapine, quetiapine, ziprasidone, aripiprazole, and amisulpride) are usually preferred over older typical antipsychotic medications (such as chlorpromazine and haloperidol) due to their favorable side-effect profile. Compared to the typical antipsychotics, the atypicals are associated with a lower incident rate of extrapyramidal side effects (EPS) and tardive dyskinesia (TD) although they are more likely to induce weight gain and so increase risk for obesity-related diseases. It is still unclear whether newer drugs reduce the chances of developing the rare but potentially life-threatening neuroleptic malignant syndrome (NMS). While the atypical antipsychotics are associated with less EPS and TD than the conventional antipsychotics, some of the agents in this class (especially olanzapine and clozapine) appear to be associated with metabolic side effects such as weight gain, hyperglycemia and hypertriglyceridemia that must be considered when choosing appropriate pharmacotherapy.

Atypical and typical antipsychotics are generally thought to be equivalent for the treatment of the positive symptoms of schizophrenia. It has been suggested by some researchers that the atypicals have some beneficial effects on negative symptoms and cognitive deficits associated with schizophrenia, although the clinical significance of these effects has yet to be established. However, recent reviews have suggested that typical antipsychotics, when dosed conservatively, may have similar effects to atypicals. The atypical antipsychotics are much more costly as they are still within patent, whereas the older drugs are available in inexpensive generic forms. Aripiprazole is a drug from a new class of antipsychotic drugs (variously named 'dopamine system stabilizers' or 'partial dopamine agonists') that have recently been developed and is now widely licensed to treat schizophrenia.

The efficacy of schizophrenia treatment is often assessed by using standardized assessment methods, one of the most common being the positive and negative syndrome scale (PANSS).

Hospitalization may occur with severe episodes. This can be voluntary or (if mental health legislation allows it) involuntary (called civil or involuntary commitment). Mental health legislation may also allow people to be treated against their will. However, in many countries such legislation does not exist, or does not have the power to enforce involuntary hospitalization or treatment.

Answer 4

I have worked with mentally ill people for the last 20years, including schizophrenics, and there are some very good medications you can get from a doctor. They all work but some better than others, depending on the person, the extent of the illness as to how they work. You are better seeing a doctor and being properly diagnosed and then the right medication given. Some do more harm than good.

Answer 5

There are medicines to tone down the symptoms, but there is nothing to get rid of it. I don't know what the medicines are called. A person I know takes them. He still suffers from delusions. It is a terrible disease.

Answer 6

There are many mood-altering medications on the market now. A psychiatrist can prescribe which one he feels will work best for a patient depending on the severity of the disorder. By all means, a schizophrenic should get help, many don't. If you feel you have this disorder, run, don't walk to the nearest doctor!

Answer 7

There are several medicines for schizophrenia, which include Lithium, Risperdal, in addition to several others. DO NOT take any medication without your consultants approval.

Answer 8

A major breakthrough towards a greater understanding of the pathophysiology of severe mental illness came with the recent identification of potential susceptibility genes for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, the two main diagnostic categories of functional psychoses. Although it has been known for many years that schizophrenia and bipolar disorder tend to run in families, and twin and adoption studies have clearly established the heritability of both disorders, no single “gene for schizophrenia” or “gene for bipolar disorder” appears to exist. Instead, the pattern of inheritance suggests that these common mental illnesses are caused by many different genes of small effect, acting together to confer susceptibility.

For schizophrenia, several candidate susceptibility genes have been identified, but for all except one of them, the single-nucleotide polymorphisms found to be associated with the disorder are noncoding. Hence, changes in the expression of the genes (for example, in terms of their splicing or relative abundance), rather than an amino acid alteration, are thought to underlie their genetic association [1]. To investigate this possibility further, studies of gene expression in postmortem brains are required.

PLoS Medicine, Linda Brzustowicz and colleagues present the results of their study of one potential schizophrenia susceptibility gene, CAPON (carboxyl-terminal PDZ ligand of neuronal nitric oxide synthase), using postmortem tissue samples of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, a pathological “hotspot” identified in studies of schizophrenia [2].

Binding of CAPON results in a reduction of NMDA receptor/nitric oxide synthase (NOS) complexes, leading to decreased NMDA receptor–gated calcium influx and a catalytically inactive nitric oxide synthase. Overexpression of either the full-length or the novel shortened CAPON isoform as reported by Brzustowicz and colleagues is, therefore, predicted to lead to impaired NMDA receptor–mediated glutamate neurotransmission.

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Answer 9

Yes, Largactil

Answer 10

Rispradol

Answer 11

There are several types. It depends on the individual doctor and patient. Seroxat is often used, but widely critiscized.