General Resources / Legal Resources / Medical Resources / Briefing Papers / State Activity    
Hospital Closures / Preventable Tragedies / Press Room / Search Our Site / Home

Fact Sheet


SCHIZOPHRENIA 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ...

 

"Schizophrenia is a cruel disease. The lives of those affected are often chronicles of constricted experiences, muted emotions, missed opportunities, unfulfilled expectations. It leads to a twilight existence, a twentieth-century underground man... It is in fact the single biggest blemish on the face of contemporary American medicine and social services; when the social history of our era is written, the plight of persons with schizophrenia will be recorded as having been a national scandal."
- E. Fuller Torrey, M.D., Surviving Schizophrenia

Symptoms of Schizophrenia

In healthy people, the brain functions in such a way that incoming stimuli are sorted and interpreted, followed by a logical response (e.g., saying "thank you" after a gift is given, realizing the potential outcome of arriving late to work, etc.). Conversely, the inability of patients with schizophrenia to sort and interpret stimuli and select appropriate responses is one of the hallmarks of the disease.
See brain scan.

Diagnosing Schizophrenia

Treating Schizophrenia

Antipsychotic Medications

Possible Side Effects of Antipsychotic Medication

Most common side effects: dry mouth, constipation, blurred vision, and drowsiness.

Less common side effects: decreased sexual desire, menstrual changes, and stiff muscles on one side of the neck and jaw.

More serious side effects: restlessness, muscle stiffness, slurred speech, tremors of the hands or feet. Agranulocytosis, a decrease in the production of white blood cells, which occurs only when taking clozapine, requires monitoring of the blood every two weeks.

NOTE: The Treatment Advocacy Center is pleased to announce a joint web site with Public Citizen's Health Research Group, which provides individuals with severe mental illnesses information on current antipsychotic medications. The "eLetter on Drugs for Severe Psychiatric Illnesses" is located at http://www.citizen.org/eletter. Neither the Treatment Advocacy Center nor Public Citizen accepts money from the pharmaceutical industry.


General Resources / Legal Resources / Medical Resources / Briefing Papers / State Activity   
Hospital Closures / Preventable Tragedies / Press Room / Search Our Site / Home

FootnoteImage2.jpg (1088 bytes)
Treatment Advocacy Center

The contents of all material available on the Center's website are copyrighted by the Treatment Advocacy Center unless otherwise indicated.  All rights reserved and content may be reproduced, downloaded, disseminated, or transferred, for single use, or by nonprofit organizations for educational purposes only, if correct attribution is made to the Treatment Advocacy Center.  The Treatment Advocacy Center does not accept funding from pharmaceutical companies or entities involved in the sale, marketing or distribution of such products. Please feel free to call with questions on mental illness, treatment laws or the benefits of medication compliance at 703.294.6001 or send questions via email to [email protected].    Write to us at:  The Treatment Advocacy Center; 3300 N. Fairfax Drive; Suite 220; Arlington, VA  22201.  Technical comments on the Center's website (www.psychlaws.org) can be sent to [email protected]. The Treatment Advocacy Center is an I.R.C. � 501(c)(3) tax-exempt corporation.  Donations are appreciated and are eligible for the charitable contribution deduction under the provisions of I.R.C. � 170.