Schizophrenia - Information By KMCH Dr

Early detection of schizophrenia can avoid hospitalisation and drastically reduce medication, says D.Srinivasan, Consultant Psychiatrist, Kovai Medical Centre and Hospital. While awareness on general physical illnesses has gone up, the awareness on mental illnesses are still abysmally low. “There is an urgent need to create awareness about schizophrenia as the number of cases that go undiagnosed is increasing,” he says.

There is an urgent need to create awareness about schizophrenia

The Department of Psychiatry of KMCH was planning to organise a general mental health awareness camp with special focus on schizophrenia in May. It also plans to run a series of programmes on mental health. “In the last 10 years, the awareness we have been able to create on diseases such as cancer, HIV/AIDS and cardiovascular diseases is phenomenal. But, the same has not happened in the case of mental illnesses,” Dr. Srinivasan adds. An illness caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain, schizophrenia can be treated if identified early. However, the lack of awareness is not just among the illiterate rural masses, but also among those who are well educated and has had exposure to the outside world.

Within a week of illness, if the patient’s family members are able to identify the earliest symptoms of schizophrenia, the treatment can be stopped within a year and complete cure is possible. But, if it goes undetected for over three to four years, it can lead to life long medication. Also, counselling alone will not help people who are suffering from the disease. On the contrary, it can even aggravate the patient’s condition. It needs proper and timely medication. Some of the common symptoms that most patients manifest during the early stages of disease are excessive sleep or sleeplessness, over-reacting to normal criticism, peculiar use of words or odd language structure, excessive writing without meaning, being reclusive and secretive and extreme reactions to criticism.

Though heredity plays a role, the disease is more likely to affect people who have a schizoid personality (withdrawn and incapable of social relationship). Stress too can only precipitate schizophrenia in people who are genetically predisposed to the disease. The disease affects men, women and adolescents in the same way. The earliest age of reported schizophrenia is 15 years. Social stigma and resistance from the public in seeking psychiatric help are factors that prevent patients from getting immediate medical help.

31.03.2008.

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