In 1997, Cats and Miss Saigon star Meera Popkin was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Her life went from center stage and limousines to waiting tables at a restaurant. In her autobiography, Coming Back: Don’t Let Your Diagnosis Block Your Vision, she wondered: “What me? I couldn’t believe it. I have been told I was a high achiever. In trying to reach my potential, how many wrong turns did I make in my life to be diagnosed with such an illness?”
While schizophrenia literally means “split mind,” it should not be confused with a “split,” or multiple, personality. “Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by loss of contact with reality (psychosis), hallucinations (usually hearing voices), delusions (false beliefs), abnormal thinking, flattened affect (restricted range of emotions), diminished motivation, and disturbed work and social functioning,” points out The Merck Manual of Medical Information.
Although not often discussed or reported in the Philippines, schizophrenia is a major health problem throughout the world. “The disorder typically strikes young people at the very time they are establishing their independence and can result in lifelong disability and stigma.”
The Geneva-based World Health Organization (WHO) listed schizophrenia as the ninth leading cause of disability around the world. It is described as “among the worst disorders afflicting humankind.” Normally, it appears in men when they are in their teens and in women in their twenties.
The Department of Health (DOH) says schizophrenia affects about one percent of the world’s population. “About 90 percent of patients in treatment between 18-55 years old,” the health department claims. “More than one-half of all male schizophrenic patients and one-third of all female patients are first admitted to psychiatric hospitals before 25.”
According to the Merck manual, the onset of schizophrenia may be sudden, over a period of days or weeks, or slow and insidious, over a period of years. “Although the severity and types of symptoms are usually sufficiently severe as to interfere with the ability to work, interact with people, and care for oneself,” the manual states.
Symptoms may be triggered or worsened by environmental stresses, such as stressful life events. Drug use may trigger or worsen symptoms as well. Overall, the symptoms fall into three major groups: positive (nondeficit) symptoms, negative (deficit) symptoms, and cognitive impairment.
Positive symptoms include delusions, hallucinations, thought disorder, and bizarre behavior. Blunted affect, poverty of speech, anhedonia (a diminished capacity to experience pleasure), and asociality (lack of interest in relationships with other people) fall under negative symptoms. Cognitive impairment refers to difficulty in concentrating and remembering, organizing, planning, and problem solving.
“Call your doctor if you or someone experiences those symptoms,” urges The Medical Advisor: The Complete Guide to Alternative and Conventional Treatments. “Schizophrenia can be a devastating disorder, and medical care is vital. Be aware that it may not be easy to persuade someone who is becoming mentally ill to acknowledge symptoms or see a physician.”
According to the health department, a person diagnosed with psychosis can be legally hospitalized against his or her will, “particularly if he or she is violent, threatening to commit suicide, or threatening to harm another person.”
Until now, what precisely causes schizophrenia is not known. However, current research suggests a combination of hereditary and environmental factors. Fundamentally, it is a biologic problem, not one caused by poor parenting or a mentally unhealthy environment.
Regarding hereditary risk, the Merck manual informs: “People who have a parent or sibling with schizophrenia have about a 10 percent risk of developing the disorder. An identical twin whose co-twin has schizophrenia has about a 50 percent risk of developing schizophrenia.”
There is no known cure for the chronic disease. Antipsychotic drugs, rehabilitation and community support activities, and psychotherapy represent the three major components of treatment. “The general goals of treatment are to reduce the severity of psychotic symptoms, prevent the recurrence of symptomatic episodes and the associated deterioration in functioning, and provide support to allow functioning at the highest level possible,” the Merck manual informs.
The modern era of medical treatment for schizophrenia began in 1952 with the use of tranquilizer chlorpromazine. This drug (and modern relatives like haloperidol) for the first time controlled acute symptoms, reduced hospitalization from years to days, and lowered rate of relapse by more than 50 percent.
On antipsychotic drugs, The Medical Advisor cautions: “Not everyone responds to these drugs. Long-term control is less successful than short-term alleviation. Also, prolonged medication may bring harmful side effects, especially the neurological muscle disorder known as tardive dyskinesia, which causes facial movements, such as grimacing and sucking emotions.”
Newer antipsychotic drugs include risperidone, olanzapine, quetiapine, ziprasidone, and clozapine. Some of these new drugs relieve symptoms without complications. “For most patients,” The Medical Advisor notes, “lifelong use of antianxiety drugs is necessary to prevent relapse. Additional drugs, such as antidepressants, may be used to treat side effects or related symptoms.”
Most schizophrenics can benefit from psychotherapy once their acute symptoms have been brought under control by antipsychotic medication. “Psychotherapy by itself is of little value without medication,” reminds The Medical Advisor. “However, supportive and sympathetic psychotherapy is needed to help the patient diagnosed with schizophrenia understand the disease and reenter society and family life.”
Schizophrenia strikes anyone; even rich and famous. John Nash was an eccentric mathematical genius whose sudden youthful plunge into schizophrenia could have ended in obscurity or tragedy. Instead, his 30-year battle against crippling mental disease ended in triumph – and winning the 1994 Nobel Prize in economics, as recounted in the blockbuster 2001 film, A Beautiful Mind (which earned Russell Crowe the much-coveted Best Actor Oscar for his tour de force performance.)
Tom Harrell has been called the John Nash of jazz. Against considerable odds, Harrell has successfully struggled with schizophrenia and become one of the most respected trumpeters and composers of the past 30 years.
While schizophrenia literally means “split mind,” it should not be confused with a “split,” or multiple, personality. “Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by loss of contact with reality (psychosis), hallucinations (usually hearing voices), delusions (false beliefs), abnormal thinking, flattened affect (restricted range of emotions), diminished motivation, and disturbed work and social functioning,” points out The Merck Manual of Medical Information.
Although not often discussed or reported in the Philippines, schizophrenia is a major health problem throughout the world. “The disorder typically strikes young people at the very time they are establishing their independence and can result in lifelong disability and stigma.”
The Geneva-based World Health Organization (WHO) listed schizophrenia as the ninth leading cause of disability around the world. It is described as “among the worst disorders afflicting humankind.” Normally, it appears in men when they are in their teens and in women in their twenties.
The Department of Health (DOH) says schizophrenia affects about one percent of the world’s population. “About 90 percent of patients in treatment between 18-55 years old,” the health department claims. “More than one-half of all male schizophrenic patients and one-third of all female patients are first admitted to psychiatric hospitals before 25.”
According to the Merck manual, the onset of schizophrenia may be sudden, over a period of days or weeks, or slow and insidious, over a period of years. “Although the severity and types of symptoms are usually sufficiently severe as to interfere with the ability to work, interact with people, and care for oneself,” the manual states.
Symptoms may be triggered or worsened by environmental stresses, such as stressful life events. Drug use may trigger or worsen symptoms as well. Overall, the symptoms fall into three major groups: positive (nondeficit) symptoms, negative (deficit) symptoms, and cognitive impairment.
Positive symptoms include delusions, hallucinations, thought disorder, and bizarre behavior. Blunted affect, poverty of speech, anhedonia (a diminished capacity to experience pleasure), and asociality (lack of interest in relationships with other people) fall under negative symptoms. Cognitive impairment refers to difficulty in concentrating and remembering, organizing, planning, and problem solving.
“Call your doctor if you or someone experiences those symptoms,” urges The Medical Advisor: The Complete Guide to Alternative and Conventional Treatments. “Schizophrenia can be a devastating disorder, and medical care is vital. Be aware that it may not be easy to persuade someone who is becoming mentally ill to acknowledge symptoms or see a physician.”
According to the health department, a person diagnosed with psychosis can be legally hospitalized against his or her will, “particularly if he or she is violent, threatening to commit suicide, or threatening to harm another person.”
Until now, what precisely causes schizophrenia is not known. However, current research suggests a combination of hereditary and environmental factors. Fundamentally, it is a biologic problem, not one caused by poor parenting or a mentally unhealthy environment.
Regarding hereditary risk, the Merck manual informs: “People who have a parent or sibling with schizophrenia have about a 10 percent risk of developing the disorder. An identical twin whose co-twin has schizophrenia has about a 50 percent risk of developing schizophrenia.”
There is no known cure for the chronic disease. Antipsychotic drugs, rehabilitation and community support activities, and psychotherapy represent the three major components of treatment. “The general goals of treatment are to reduce the severity of psychotic symptoms, prevent the recurrence of symptomatic episodes and the associated deterioration in functioning, and provide support to allow functioning at the highest level possible,” the Merck manual informs.
The modern era of medical treatment for schizophrenia began in 1952 with the use of tranquilizer chlorpromazine. This drug (and modern relatives like haloperidol) for the first time controlled acute symptoms, reduced hospitalization from years to days, and lowered rate of relapse by more than 50 percent.
On antipsychotic drugs, The Medical Advisor cautions: “Not everyone responds to these drugs. Long-term control is less successful than short-term alleviation. Also, prolonged medication may bring harmful side effects, especially the neurological muscle disorder known as tardive dyskinesia, which causes facial movements, such as grimacing and sucking emotions.”
Newer antipsychotic drugs include risperidone, olanzapine, quetiapine, ziprasidone, and clozapine. Some of these new drugs relieve symptoms without complications. “For most patients,” The Medical Advisor notes, “lifelong use of antianxiety drugs is necessary to prevent relapse. Additional drugs, such as antidepressants, may be used to treat side effects or related symptoms.”
Most schizophrenics can benefit from psychotherapy once their acute symptoms have been brought under control by antipsychotic medication. “Psychotherapy by itself is of little value without medication,” reminds The Medical Advisor. “However, supportive and sympathetic psychotherapy is needed to help the patient diagnosed with schizophrenia understand the disease and reenter society and family life.”
Schizophrenia strikes anyone; even rich and famous. John Nash was an eccentric mathematical genius whose sudden youthful plunge into schizophrenia could have ended in obscurity or tragedy. Instead, his 30-year battle against crippling mental disease ended in triumph – and winning the 1994 Nobel Prize in economics, as recounted in the blockbuster 2001 film, A Beautiful Mind (which earned Russell Crowe the much-coveted Best Actor Oscar for his tour de force performance.)
Tom Harrell has been called the John Nash of jazz. Against considerable odds, Harrell has successfully struggled with schizophrenia and become one of the most respected trumpeters and composers of the past 30 years.
