Suggest Treatment For Schizophrenia

Posted on Tue, 25 Nov 2014

Question: Dear Doctor,
My mother has a long history more than 30 year of schizophrenia. She is now 65 years old. She keeps talking to herself. She complains of hearing sounds of persons talking from inside her. She has been asked to take medicine life long. If due to any reasons in case the medicines stops then intensity of the problem increase significantly. I am attaching the last prescription of the doctor. Need your advice if there are any improvement in treatment possible?

Regards,
XXXXXXX XXXXXXX

Answered by Dr. Dr. Ashok Kumar Choudhary (39 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
Yes that is possible

Detailed Answer:
Dear XXXXXXX
Thanks for using healthcaremagic.

I read your query and gone through prescription which was given to your mother.

I agree with your doctor that treatment of schizophrenia is life long and it should be continued to keep the patient symptom free and to minimize family disruption.

I do not find any abnormality with prescription but I like to suggest following things for improving compliance or medicine taking behavior of your mother.

Patients with schizophrenia can be given depot injection which remain effective for about 2 weeks to four weeks. As a single injection remains in the body for the 2 weeks and the medication in body helps the patient in managing symptoms.
Patient who receive injection generally remain symptom free even when medication is discontinued for some period.

You can talk to your doctor on next visit about the option of these injections for your mother. In this way we can improve her outcome.

Hope I am able to answer your concerns.
If you have any further query, I would be glad to help you.
If not, you may close the discussion and if possible you may rate the answer for me, so that I get a good feedback.
Thanks and regards

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Prasad

Follow up: Dr. Dr. Ashok Kumar Choudhary (48 hours later)

Thanks a lot Doctor. Since she has been consuming these medicines for a long period if time are there any side effects that we have to be concerned about. What should be done to manage these side effects if any? At any point if time whether these medicines need to be changed both in type and dossage?

Answered by Dr. Dr. Ashok Kumar Choudhary (1 hour later)

Brief Answer:
Yes there are side effects but mild

Detailed Answer:
Dear XXXXXXX
Welcome back to healthcaremagic.

I underastand that medication in schizophrenia are continued lifelong and they have very minimal side effects.

The most common side effect with these medication are metabolic syndrome which characterizes the hypertension, diabetes, obesity and high lipids.

The best way to control these side effects is to have active life and regular exercise with low fat and low calorie diet.

Medication dose is decided on basis of patient symptoms and response to medication. Many time when we feel that patient have increase of symptoms or decrease of symptoms we often manipulate the dosage of medication as per needs.

In most of the patients the one or two drug is effective and there is no need to change. In about one third where they do not respond to particular medication than different medication is prescribed. The other reason to change medication is when patient not able to tolerate particular medicine.

It is always better to see the doctor at interval of one to three months so that required change in medication can be made.

Hope I am able to answer your concerns.
If you have any further query, I would be glad to help you.
If not, you may close the discussion and if possible you may rate the answer for me, so that I get a good feedback.
Thanks and regards

Note: For further guidance on mental health, Click here.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Vinay Bhardwaj