My brother (25) just got diagnosed with Schizophrenia. Can anyone help me with how to find information?

Question

Information, treatments, cures, support

Answer 1

Schizophrenia, unfortunately, cannot be cured, but the symptoms can be treated.
I'm not going to copy-paste an entire document, but here's some good links for understanding schizophrenia.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/schizophrenia.html
Schizophrenia: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000928.htm
Medications: http://www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/medicate.cfm#antipsychotics
Maintaining Your Own Health: For Family Members Caring for Relatives with a Mental Disorder: http://www.world-schizophrenia.org/publications/07-health.html

As the person above me said, family support and structure is a HUGE piece to treatment success. NAMI chapters often hold family programs and groups.
http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?section=Find_Support

Answer 2

www.schizophrenia.com is the website for a nonprofit organization that provides useful overviews of symptoms, prognosis, treatment, and support groups for individuals with schizophrenia and their family members. Also, if you go to the website for the National Institute of Mental Health, there should be some useful information, as well. Good luck to you and your brother.

Answer 3

Cures as in medication: a drug called Serequel ( quetiapine )
It is an anti psychotic medication falling under the category of heavy Tranquillizers,
Info on Internet, best to get some counselling, approach with care and concern.Go to doctors cause that drug i mentioned is good in the way of reduced side effects and they can offer or direct you in the way of support and ways to live normal life again

Answer 4

go to the library or look on the net for the best response but be careful of the information go the you local mental health center

Answer 5

look it up on the internet there is lots of information and talk to his doctor

Answer 6

http://www.schizophrenia.com/
it's the best information about the condition on the internet

Answer 7

My cousin has it, too. Go to this site (link below):

Answer 8

see in mental health .com

Answer 9

Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is an illness that is biogically based. You inherit a predisposition for the disorder which is generally triggered by stress. The typical age of onset is in the late teens to early 20's (the college years).

The general characteristics include both "positive" (acute) symptoms and "negative" (residual) symptoms and there is a prodromal phase, acute phases and residual phases. There are a lot of technical aspects to the correct diagnosis which I won't elaborate, but in general the characteristic signs are any combination of the following:

"Positive" signs:
-Hallucinations (primarily auditory, less often visual and rarely tactile, gustatory or olfactory)
-Delusions (fixed or variable, paranoid/persecutory and grandiose, somatic, erotomanic, nihilistic, etc.-they run the gamut of various types, "ideas of reference" where a person believes that random events have a special meaning meant just for them, delusions of thought control or thought insertion)
-Disorganized Thinking ("Loose associations" where thoughts are strung together with little cohesiveness, "perseveration" where a person gets stuck on the same thought or theme over and over like a needle that skips on a record and keeps replaying )
-Disorganized Behavior (catatonic excitement, catatonic stupor which is like posturing-usually only seen in extremely severe cases and rarely any more)
-Poor Concentration and inability to focus on a thought, sometimes "blocking" where a thought becomes interrupted in midstream)
-Disorganized speech (incoherence, rambling or circumstantial speech-lots of fancy terms like echolalia, word salad, verbigeration, clanging)
-Inappropriate Affect (inappropriate giggling, tears, silliness, etc. that is out of context to the situation)

"Negative" signs:
-social withdrawal and preference to isolate
-flattened or blunted affect (emotional expression)
-Amotivation (lack of motivation, apparent apathy)

There are 5 distinct types:
1-Paranoid: most organized thinking of the types-prominent delusions and hallucinations
2-Disorganized (Hebephrenic): Grossly disorganized thinking and behavior predominates and inappropriate affect
3-Catatonic: catonia, rarely seen any more
4-Undifferentiated: no clear predominant symptoms
5-Residual: Primary negative symptoms-often seen as a "burned out" version where there are fewer positive or acute symptoms

Schizophrenics often are able to maintain jobs in low stress environments with minimal interpersonal demands once they are stabilized. Others may work in sheltered employment with support and guidance. Social skills are greatly impaired and schizophrenics often have great difficulty reading the social cues most of us take for granted and thus they misjudge or misread social situations which reinforces their tendency to self-isolate as do paranoid symptoms. Intimacy is exceptionally difficult as well and they rarely form close or deep bonds with others, making it difficult to function as husbands and parents. They tend to appear aloof and distant emotionally, although often this is a way of coping with feelings of being overwhelmed by other people's emotional expression and demands.

Medication often serves to either completely control the acute symptoms or dampen their impact, but tends to have minimal impact on the negative symptoms. The side effects are often horrendous and intolerable and this leads to a familiar pattern of stopping medication, beginning the trend of repeated courses of decompensation leading to re-hospitalization.

The ineffectiveness of meds and the emotional blunting they can cause often leads to attempts to self-medicate with alcohol or marijuana (usually) which often increase symptoms.

Schizophrenics often perceive the world in unigue and idiosyncratic ways which can cause them difficulty in complying with social norms and expectations, even simple things like generally accepted standards for cleanliness or hygiene. It can also lead them to exceptional creativity and expression in arts and abstract disciplines. Examples of famous schizophrenics are the poet and artist, William Blake (I have many of his works in my office for inspiration) and John Nash, the Nobel Prize winner featured in the movie "A Beautiful MInd".

Look into local chapters of NAMI (National Alliance for the Mentally Ill) as they often run self-help groups for both sufferers and family members and they can be extremely helpful in advocating for treatment/benefits if needed.

Answer 10

This bimbo in front of me could have just gave you the website she so cleverly copy and paisted from........DUMB BI*CH!