Alternative Treatments for Schizophrenia
Alternative Treatments for Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia: A psychiatric disorder that often manifests as disorganized speech and thinking, auditory hallucinations, and/or paranoid or bizarre delusions. The disorder must have significant impact on the social or occupational functioning of the individual.
Current treatments include cognitive/behavioral therapy and antipsychotic pharmaceuticals that may have significant side effects on the patient including tardive dyskinesia and other effects. It may also be very difficult to keep the patient on their medication because of their symptoms, for example, the patient’s paranoid delusions. This may prompt the search for alternative treatments for schizophrenic patients.
There are multiple “alternative treatments” for Schizophrenia, but we chose two: Orthomolecular psychiatry and Acupuncture.
➢ Orthomolecular Psychiatry: uses dietary supplements and other treatments to effectively treat mental illness.
o Folic Acid: Deficiency occurs in 10-30% of hospitalized schizophrenics and is thought to help with psychotic symptoms by normalizing prostaglandin metabolism.
o However, too much folic acid can also trigger psychotic episodes.
o Niacin: (Vitamin B-3) In 1952 thought to be a “cure” for schizophrenia by Dr. Abram Hoffer.
o Niacin, when combined with ascorbate, is antagonistic to copper, which is a cofactor in dopamine production. An excess of copper can cause overproduction of dopamine, which leads to a downregulation of serotonin, which may explain some of the negative symptoms.
o Also, in high levels, copper is a toxin that may produce hallucinations.
➢ Acupuncture: Ancient Chinese therapy that involves needle stimulation of specific areas on the body.
o Thought to be able to help allieviate some of the symptoms of schizophrenia.
o Used alone, results are inconclusive about the efficacy of acupuncture, may be a placebo effect.
o Used in combination with antipsychotic drugs can help reduce the amount of drug necessary, thus reducing side effects.
o New studies show that acupuncture stimulates the release of serotonin, and not dopamine, so it may be helpful on its own in treating the negative symptoms of schizophrenia, but more studies must be done first.
................
................
In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.
To fulfill the demand for quickly locating and searching documents.
It is intelligent file search solution for home and business.
Related searches
- injections for schizophrenia list
- injections for schizophrenia treatment
- alternative treatments for lupus
- drugs used for schizophrenia treatment
- new medication for schizophrenia 2019
- drugs for schizophrenia disorders
- drugs for schizophrenia treatment
- best medication for schizophrenia disorder
- medications for schizophrenia disorder
- medicines for schizophrenia treatment
- icd 10 for schizophrenia unspecified
- icd 10 for schizophrenia paranoid