Treatment for Schizophrenia - Mental Health Disorders
Treatment for Schizophrenia
Vitamin and Mineral Therapies. Dr. Abraham Hoffer, president of the Canadian Schizophrenia Foundation, has successfully treated schizophrenics with megavitamins. Writing in a 1993 issue of the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine , he demonstrates that vitamin B 3 (nicotinic acid or nicotinamide) can double the recovery rate of acute schizophrenics. After 10 years of vitamin treatments, 11 of Hoffer's 26 schizophrenic patients are working, two are married and looking after their families, two are single mothers caring for their children with difficulty, and three are managing their own businesses.
The orthomolecular treatment of schizophrenia developed by Hoffer and others appears remarkably more successful than traditional psychiatric treatment. A follow-up study of schizophrenics treated by psychiatrists, for example, reported by E. Johnstone in a 1991 issue of The British Journal of Psychiatry , showed that only 5% of schizophrenics treated by psychiatry showed significant recovery. Dr. Hoffer now believes that nutritional and orthomolecular therapies combining nutritious foods, vitamins, minerals, and amino acids will soon become the standard treatment for schizophrenia.
Dr. William Walsh of the Carl Pfeiffer Treatment Center in Naperville, Illinois, reports in Alternative Medicine: The Definitive Guide that schizophrenia may be related to histamine levels in the blood. He has found that schizophrenics with low histamine levels are much easier to treat with nutritional therapies than those with elevated histamine levels. His medical staff gives folate and nutrients which eliminate excess copper and lower histamine levels. Nervousness, depression, and hallucinations often disappear after several months of treatment. Paranoid symptoms, however, often take as long as a year to subside.
For schizophrenic patients with elevated histamine levels, Dr. Walsh's treatments focus on megadoses of calcium which help release excess histamines from body cells. Megadoses of the amino acid methylamine also help eliminate unnecessary histamines. Schizophrenics with high levels of histamines must avoid niacin, folic acid, and green leafy vegetables. In each case, he recommends individual nutritional counseling. Some adult psychotic patients have an excess of copper that may produce a schizophrenic syndrome. Copper excess has been linked to learning and behavioral disorders in children, and Walsh advises that copper levels be decreased in schizophrenic patients.
Botanical Therapies. Dr. Q. Ma reports in the April 1991 issue of the Chinese Journal of Integrated Traditional & Western Medicine that Sin Shen Ling (XSL) may prevent relapses of schizophrenia. Thirty Chinese patients suffering from chronic schizophrenia were given a Chinese immunological herbal formula, XSL, rather than neuroleptic medications because these had not proved effective. Sixty-seven percent of the patients clinically improved after six weeks of herbal treatment with XSL.
Professional Therapies for Schizophrenia
- The majority of psychotherapists recommend supportive therapy for both acute and long-term treatment. During the acute phase, behavioral or psychotherapy is usually recommended.
- During long-term treatment, family and behavioral approaches are often recommended.
- Acute episodes of schizophrenia usually require hospitalization and treatment with antipsychotic drugs. Most drugs help schizophrenics feel more in control of themselves, organize chaotic thinking, and reduce or eliminate delusions or hallucinations, allowing fuller participation in normal activities. Even those who do not improve significantly on medication usually do worse without it.
- Clozapine (Clozaril) can help to relieve both positive and negative symptoms in individuals who do not improve with standard antipsychotic medications or who develop intolerable side effects. In one study, 30% of patients who were not helped by other antipsychotics improved with Clozapine.
- Clinical trials indicate that risperidone (Risperdal), which blocks receptors for serotonin and dopamine, significantly reduces both positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia, produces fewer side effects than Clozapine, and does not require intensive and expensive weekly blood monitoring.
- Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) has been used on schizophrenic individuals who show no improvement after several months of drug therapy and on those with catatonia or depression. Although it relieves depressive symptoms and reverses catatonia, there have been few reports on its long-term effectiveness.
- The use of other types of medication, including lithium, benzodiazepines, and antidepressants, together with antipsychotics, is currently being studied by investigators around the world.
Medications. One promising treatment for schizophrenia is the antipsychotic drug Clozapine, which has been approved by the FDA for nationwide use. Designed only for schizophrenics who fail to respond to the standard antipsychotic drugs, or who suffer from negative side effects such as anxiety or insomnia, Clozapine appears to counteract excess dopamine in the brain which is associated with the disorder's symptoms. Clozapine, however, can cause a potentially fatal condition called agranulocytosis in which the body's ability to produce infection-fighting white blood cells is impaired, as reported by David Perlman in the March 2, 1990 edition of the San Francisco Chronicle . Because of that risk, all doctors prescribing the drug must require patients to undergo a white blood cell count every week while taking the medication so that the medication can be stopped if white blood cell levels drop dangerously low.
Examples of Compulsive Disorders
- Excessive hand washing. Someone who washes his hands 100 times a day until they are red and raw.
- Checking and rechecking. Someone who locks and relocks the door each day for 30 minutes before leaving the house.
- Collecting. Someone who stores every newspaper in the garage.
- Repetition. A student who must tap the door frame of every classroom before entering.
- Arranging. Someone who spends hours alphabetizing every item in the kitchen cabinets, or have all clothing organized by color.
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