Schizophrenia Can Be Managed

This manual attempts to provide simple, adequate and evidence-based information to health care professionals in primary health care especially in low- and middle-income countries to be able to provide pharmacological treatment to persons with mental disorders. The manual contains basic principles of prescribing followed by chapters on medicines used in psychotic disorders; depressive disorders; bipolar disorders; generalized anxiety and sleep disorders; obsessive compulsive disorders and panic attacks; and alcohol and opioid dependence. The annexes provide information on evidence retrieval, assessment and synthesis and the peer view process.

This book analyzes schizophrenia management in the context of recent clinical therapeutic advances that have transformed the measurements and outcomes landscape. Unlike any other resource, this volume carefully develops the social and clinical guidelines that affect the life of the patient and defines its role in schizophrenia treatment outcomes. The text begins by determining the concepts, development, neuroscience, and guidelines for positive outcomes before analyzing the gaps in the literature. The text addresses medical concerns in relation to outcomes in schizophrenic patients, including substance use, impact from antipsychotic medications, and medical comorbidities. The text also covers external determinants that may inhibit positive outcomes, including cultural factors, stigma, and environmental issues. Written by experts in schizophrenia care, this book compiles sound research, current clinical trends, and modern measurement markers into a well-organized compendium that delivers this data into a practical guide for measuring treatment outcomes in patients suffering from the disease. Schizophrenia Treatment Outcomes is the ultimate guide for psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses, social workers, and all medical practitioners interested in improving outcomes for schizophrenia patients.

Drawing on the authors' decades of influential work in the field, this highly practical volume presents an evidence-based cognitive therapy approach for clients with schizophrenia. Guidelines are provided for collaborative assessment and case formulation that enable the clinician to build a strong therapeutic relationship, establish reasonable goals, and tailor treatment to each client's needs. Described in thorough, step-by-step detail are effective techniques for working with delusional beliefs, voices, visions, thought disorders, and negative symptoms; integrating cognitive therapy with other forms of treatment; reducing relapse risks; and enhancing client motivation. Special features include reproducible client handouts and assessment tools.

The second edition of this popular volume has been thoroughly updated, offering new information on the advances in research and management since the publication of the first edition a decade ago.

Inevitably, every psychotherapist has some experience with severely disturbed patients. Consequently, they will turn with excitement to this important new book which is a stunning attempt by two knowledgeable, persevering psychotherapists to present their understanding and sound therapeutic approach to these difficult and challenging patients. The authors argue that the treatment of choice is clearly psychotherapy and that such treatment can be successful and as long lasting for schizophrenic patients as it is for neurotic patients, but the journey may be longer and it may take more time to traverse.The task of therapy is to untangle the past from the present to make the future conceivable. The volume provides a thorough historical overview of the theoretical and clinical approaches to the problem of schizophrenia, including the views of leading contemporary clinicians on the topic. In general, the major clinical controversies have been regarded as issues of whether to focus on past, present or future; reality or fantasy; affects; exploration or relationship; whether the therapist should be active or passive; and how to handle regression. The authors argue that these are the wrong issues. They say that the task of therapy is to untangle the past from the present to make the future conceivable. Reality and fantasy are intertwined and must both be dealt with. Affects are central to all therapy, and emphasis on anger, despair, loneliness, terror, and shame are all necessary, as is the clarification of affect, and the acceptance of positive affect. Activity versus passivity is again in the wrong question; the right one is what action is helpful, when it is helpful, and when is not doing anything helpful? Regression is inevitable; should one accept it fully or try to limit it? This has no general answer other than do what is necessary (i.e., unavoidable) or most helpful to a particular patient at a particular time.

This book presents the first evidence-based psychotherapy with demonstrated effectiveness for persons with schizophrenia and related disorders. Designed to help patients both achieve and maintain clinical stability, personal therapy combines psychoeducation; internal coping skills training; and enhancement of interpersonal, social, and vocational functioning. The volume describes how to integrate the approach with medical management and provides a practical, three-phase therapy manual, fully documented with findings from the author's influential research program. Detailed information is presented on the application of graduated strategies as the patient moves from a recent psychotic episode, through the process of optimal stabilization, to the resumption of community life outside the home. Also featured are tools for monitoring progress and suggestions for tailoring interventions to the specific needs of each patient.

The American Psychiatric Association (APA) is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to sponsor continuing medical education for physicians.

An international team of leading researchers and clinicians provides the first comprehensive, epidemiological overview of this multi-faceted and still-perplexing disorder. Controversial issues such as the validity of discrete or dimensional classifications of schizophrenia and the continuum between psychosis and 'normality' are explored in depth. Separate chapters are devoted to topics of particular relevance to schizophrenia such as suicide, violence and substance abuse. Finally, new prospects for treatment and prevention are considered.

Over the next 30 years, the number of chronically mentally ill people 55 years of age and older will double. With multiple disorders relating to mental illness and old age, this population will require unique services from a health care system that is ill prepared to deliver them. This is the first major multidisciplinary reference on this important topic. Coverage includes information on demographic and clinical characteristics of older schizophrenic persons, treatment approaches, research strategies, and economic and health policy issues.