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Schizophrenia: Diagnosis and Treatment
Diagnosis
Schizophrenia cannot be diagnosed through laboratory tests or imaging. A detailed psychiatric examination will help identify the disease and medical history and physical examination will help rule out other medical or psychiatric disorders.
Treatment
- Medications are the most effective treatment, and discontinuing medication will typically lead to a recurrence of symptoms.
The older antipsychotic medications, such as haloperidol or chlorpromazine, can be very effective, but they carry a risk of undesirable side effects. Newer medications, such as risperidone and olanzapine, have fewer side effects. - Treatment for schizophrenia should continue for life. This is often challenging, because affected individuals may not recognize their illness or seek treatment, and may stop treatment because of undesirable side effects or lack of access to mental health services.
- Emotional and physical support is an important component of treatment, and patients often have better results when direct family or community support is a part of their overall treatment plan.
- Cognitive–behavioral therapy and family therapy are useful to identify warning signs of relapse and improve treatment adherence. Family therapy has been shown to reduce relapse and rehospitalization.
- Group therapy, job training, and social skills training may improve quality of life and social functioning.
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