Schizophrenia is a common mental illness in psychiatric department, but most patients or their families are worried or afraid after seeing the diagnosis of schizophrenia, and always ask when they can stop taking drugs. Can it be cured? Will it recur? Wait a minute. Today, let's discuss this issue with you.
when can schizophrenia stop taking drugs?
Compared with other diseases, the medication cycle of schizophrenia is relatively long, which can be divided into three stages: acute stage, consolidation stage and maintenance stage.
The treatment goal in the acute phase is to relieve the main symptoms as soon as possible and prevent extreme behaviors from hurting yourself or others, which takes at least 6 weeks.
The goal of treatment in consolidation period is to reduce the fluctuation of illness and consolidate the therapeutic effect, which usually takes 3-6 months.
The purpose of maintenance treatment is to prevent and reduce the recurrence of symptoms and promote the recovery of social function. Usually, the maintenance period of patients with the first attack needs 1-2 years, and the maintenance treatment needs 2-5 years after the second attack, and the patients with multiple relapses need to maintain the medication for a longer time.
According to clinical statistics, only about 2% of patients with schizophrenia will never have an attack again after their first attack is cured, and 8% of them will relapse within 5 years. Long-term maintenance of medication can relieve 6% of patients' symptoms and have good social functions.
Therefore, don't stop taking medicine in a hurry. Many patients reduce or stop taking medicine at will because of their poor compliance, which leads to repeated attacks, increasing the difficulty of treatment and causing more serious social function damage.
Some patients and their families are worried that taking drugs for a long time will have great side effects, eating bad brains, and they want to stop taking drugs as soon as their mental state improves. This concept is not desirable. The therapeutic effect of drugs is far greater than its side effects. Taking drugs for a long time will not cause damage to the brain. Just pay attention to regular examination of liver and kidney functions. Other side effects can be solved by communicating with the attending doctor.
can schizophrenia be "completely cured"?
In fact, the clinical definition of "recovery" of schizophrenia is relatively simple. As long as the psychotic symptoms disappear and you have a clear understanding of the disease state, it can be said to be "clinical recovery".
what are the psychotic symptoms? Common symptoms are auditory hallucination, hallucination, delusion, thinking disorder, apathy, soliloquy, self-laughter, weird behavior, etc. Patients in the onset of the disease often don't realize their own abnormality and don't think they are sick, that is, they don't have "self-knowledge". Therefore, if family members find that patients have the above symptoms, they must take them to the psychiatric department of a regular hospital as soon as possible.
After a period of medication or physical therapy, the psychotic symptoms will gradually decrease until they disappear. Patients can start a normal life, no longer have some strange words or behaviors, and can interact and communicate with others normally, which is the standard of cure.
However, this is not the same as the patients and their families' pursuit of complete cure and no recurrence. In fact, there is no disease that can guarantee no recurrence for life after treatment, but the probability of recurrence or the severity of the impact on life is different. For example, as long as there are stimulating conditions, the probability of catching a cold again is high, but people are not too worried because it is easier to treat.
Therefore, don't blindly pursue the complete cure of the disease, and worrying too much about the treatment results will easily increase the psychological burden, which is not conducive to rehabilitation.