Information About Antipsychotics / Neuroleptics - Medical Analysis

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Information About Antipsychotics / Neuroleptics Meant For The Treatment of Mental Illnesses - Medical Analysis




As a matter of fact, clinical evidences actually indicate that those troubled with mental disorders, especially the serious ones, shouldn't just rely solely upon the medications (especially the antipsychotics / neuroleptics) as the one and only means of solution to their mental problems.



To put it bluntly, such medications, they are no different from sleeping pills whereby their calming effects just 'come and go' after the lapse of their effective period whilst their potential disastrous side effects can be permanent upon manifestations. In medical sense, such mental disorders, especially the serious ones are mainly caused by the malfunctionings of the mood regulator neurotransmitter, especially Serotonin in the brain. Next, though the related medications can to a certain extent bring such a severe mental disorder under control by 'artificially' regulating, blocking and controlling the re-uptake of it in the brain of the persons suffering from it, medications alone however, by no means would be able to deal conclusively with the problems due to the fact that the root causes of such a disorder is actually resulting largely from the environmental, circumstantial and other interpersonal factors (or the changes of them) that are deemed to be emotionally and adversely unacceptable to the ones suffering from it to a very great extent. Such negative changes in turn actually account for the negative behavioural changes in them as described



In short, it remains the truth that most of the antipsychotics / neuroleptics meant for especially the treatment of chronic mental illnesses would tend to work in such a way that they would need to change / alter the chemical balances in the brain of those taking such medications in the process of bringing such disorders under control. In the process of doing so, such a mechanism would unavoidably and eventually antagonize the neurotransmitters of the nervous system, especially the serotonin and dopamine (which is necessary for various neuromuscular functions), and hence disturb and interfere with the normal functionings of the nerves of the human body.



Next, though it may take years for such undesirable side effects / scenario to manifest onto the ones taking such medications, I am just in the opinion that in the case of the medications having potentially such unwanted side effects, it would naturally be the duty of the medical personnel / specialists-in-charge to take all the precautionary measures to safeguard the well-being of the patients for the sake of their health care and welfare.



The real-life examples that I have come across so far is such that for the ones relying merely upon medications and nothing else to deal with their mental disorders, they would tend to develop both emotional and psychological dependences upon such medictions over the long-term whilst getting their mental conditions deteriorated from time to time, eg, from neurosis to psychosis and then just acquire all those almost irreversibly disastrous undesirable side effects like Extrapyramidal Symptoms, Tardive Dyskinesia, Dystonia, Akathisia, Parkinsonism disorders etc from such medications in the end.



In such a connection, psychotherapy, emotional and other communication / interactive supports would be needed to complement the use of the related medications to achieve greater curative effects for such patients troubled by chronic mental disorder.



As such, medications is one thing, but the mental / cognitive abilities of the patients themselves to eventually change their views and perceptions about their environments / surroundings, circumstances and people they are facing in a more positve way, particularly developed through the help of such counselling supports from the others in order for them to really get better and gradually develop positive behavioural / personality changes, is simply another thing that cannot achieved solely with the help of medications alone.



In a nutshell, medications alone by no means can be a substitute for the positive interpersonal experiences that such patients would eventually need for genuine improvement and recovery of their sanity and the use of them should at the same time be complemented by other psychotherapy efforts to achieve the purpose of holistic healing.



Lastly, I hope that the information given above will turn out to be useful to its intended readers. Thank you.




Extra Reading Materials (Please Look For The Posts Made By ntuc In The Website Below) :


http://www.mentalhealthforum.net/forum/showthread.php?t=3039

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Statistics of Recovery Cases For Mental Illnesses



In fact, statistical evidences actually show that among the ones getting mental illnesses, especially the serious one like Schizophrenia, generally one-third of the population of such people would eventually manage to achieve full recovery, another one-third would gain significant improvements while getting occasional relapses of such disorders, whilst the remaining rest would just get their disorders worsened day after day until no recovery is conceivably possible.


Lastly, what I am trying to say is that as long as there're hopes in getting improvements for one's mental disorders, one should put in the necessary efforts and work hard towards that goal of gaining more and more sanities and finally full recoveries if possible.

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General Cognitive Behavioural Process



Well, a psychologist has actually explained to me before that any human actions / behaviours are generally dictated by a cognitive mental process summarized such as follows, and it would apply as well to the ones suffering from any mental disorders, but nevertheless are still mentally and cognitively well-aware of their surroundings and other objects / factors around them. Next, I find that such reasonings really make great senses, and hence, I just feel like to share it with the intended readers :-



Perceptions (anything we see, we hear, we know, we taste, we touch etc from our surroundings / other people) => Thoughts (the types of views and opinions that we form in our minds after receiving those perceptions) => Feelings (the way we feel about our surroundings and other people based on the views and opinons formed) => Actions (how we choose to react in response to those surroundings / other people based on the thoughts and feelings that arise our mind).



In such a regard, the underlying problem faced by the ones with schizophrenia, bipolar disorders and other mental disorders are such that they would tend to treat their perceptions (as mentioned above) in a very much negatively different way, and that in turn results in them forming all those negative thoughts and feelings and then all those negative actions of which others get to label them as negative behavioural / personality changes.



For example, a person suffering from schizophrenia may, after 'observing' his surroundings (Perceptions), just in turn tend to have such false imagery thoughts that someone out there is threatening his life (Thoughts), and then just feeling scared and fearful, and in extreme cases, maybe they may get to hear 'voices' and have unreal imaginations of which they choose to firmly believe in (Feelings), and finally just try his very best based on his own 'misguided judgements', to subconsciously become violently defensive and hostile against the others in order to save himself, from being killed etc (Actions).



With all due respect, the antipsychotics and other neuroleptics just serve to temporarily block such negative nerve impulses about their such negative perceptions from getting sent to the brain of the ones having such disorders so as to artificially block all those negative thoughts, feelings and then the actions. Hence, they are simply not a conclusive and permanent solution to such disorders.



Well, in such a context, the most direct way of treating schizophrenia and bipolar disorder in the most effective, and maybe largely hypothetical way would be for such persons to totally change their perceptions about their surroundings, environments, the other people in a positive way and to start having positive and realistic thoughts and at the same time, to get rid of those hallucinations, fanciful ideas, little by little gradually and slowly out of their mind and replace them with anything normal, practical, realistic and positive. Theorectically, positive perceptions => positive thoughts => positive feelings => positive actions.



In this sense, a great deal of interpersonal, interactive, communications and emotional supports from the ones genuinely willing to help them would be very much essential in getting this achieved, essentially in changing the ways they perceive, think and feel for anything they deal with so as to enable them to come to a decision on their own to have positive actions.



Nonetheless, above all these external constructive helps from the others, all the self-initiatives, self-controls and self-disciplines that are meant to be exercised, essentially on the parts of the ones suffering from such a disorder, particularly to 'mentally-train' themselves to think realistically, positively, optimistically and to cast out / expel all those weird thoughts, hallucinations, fanciful imaginations and preposterous urges and whims little by little out of their minds and get them replaced with the positive, practical and realistic ones, so as to slowly develop positive behavioural changes in themselves, would in turn actually be the decisive factor in determining whether their conditions will pracitcally improve or not, slowly and gradually in the end.

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As a summary,



I'm suggesting the following as a solution to mental disorders :



1/3 of medicational helps + 1/3 of psychotherapies, interactive, interpersonal, emotional, communication, conselling supports from the others + 1/3 of self-determinations, self-initiatives, self-controls, self-wills and self-disciplines to think positively, rationally, realistically and practically as well as to lead a normal and healthy life



These are actually the advices I have obtained from many neurologists, psychiatrists, psychotherapists and psychologists as well as the very conclusions I have experienced myself.



Lastly, I hope that the information given will be relevant and useful to the intended readers. Thank you.

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Hallucinations / Delusions, symptoms of Schizophrenia - Brief Analysis




In fact, for the symptoms of hallucinations / delusions etc that might come along with certain mental disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder etc, well, I was actually informed by the psychiatrists and psychologists that all these hallucinations / delusions etc, 'they' are actually 'fed' on such negative feelings as fear, anger, frustrations, suspicions and all other fanciful, illogical, irrational, erratic and unreasonable senses of those suffering from such hallucinational disorders.



This is to say, the more and more, and the frequent and frequent that such people having hallucinations / delusions are to entertain / indulge / revel / be engrossed in such negative feelings of fear, anger, frustrations, suspicions and all other fanciful, illogical, irrational, erratic and unreasonable senses, and the stronger and stronger of those senses that such people suffering from schizophrenia / bipolar disorder tend to have, then the worse and worse their delusional and hallucinational conditions would tend to become / deteriorate over time.



Similarly, the same concepts and principles would fairly apply to certain mental diorders like depressions, anxieties, phobias, panic attacks etc whereby the more and more depressed, anxious, distressed, worried, dejected, panicked, desperate, emotionally impulsive, fearful (of certain things, surroundings, situations, people etc) a particular mentally-illed person can get, the more and more serious that such mental disorders would potentially deteriorate over the long-term.



So, one would really need to learn how to control oneself so as not to let their such negative senses running out of control.



In short, in dealing with such problems, just don't 'give' all these hallucinations / delusions etc what 'they' want (in these cases, that will be those negative unrealistic / irrational / wildly fanciful senses etc as described above) so as to prevent the symptoms from deteriorating from bad to worse. Whilst the same approaches would be effective for the other mental disorders too, such as the ones mentioned above.



So, the ways of overcoming these hallucinations / delusions, other mental disorders etc, on one point, would be to use certain related medications to temporarily bring such a condition under control (temporarily in the sense that medications have their limitations especially in terms of their effective curative period, whilst at the same time, such a 'temporary healing' is actually achieved through the artificial suppressing of negative nerve impulses to block all such negative feelings, thoughts - in this case, mainly the hallucinations, and finally the actions which arise from negative perceptions).



On the other hand, one's self-initiatives and self-efforts to exercise self-controls, self-disciplines, self-rationalisings, self-reasonings etc to overcome all those delusions and hallucinations would be of utmost essential in helping oneself to cope with such mental disorders.



This is to say, in order to overcome all those delusions, hallucinations etc, one would need to exercise all those self-initiatives, self-controls etc to exercise self-reasonings and self-rationalisings, so as to enable oneself to gradually and slowly think positively, rationally, realistically, reasonably, practically and sensibly, as well as, at the same time, to replace all those delusional, hallucinational thoughts, wild imaginations etc, bit by bit, with rational and reasonable thoughts and senses, just like the what the normal healthy people do.



In the meantime, one would reasonably require certain psychotherapy, emotional, interactive, interpersonal and communication supports in getting such goals achieved. In this regard, such other activities as doing sports, playing indoor games (such as chess, card games etc), engagings in one's favourite hobbies, watching comedies, reading something interesting, positively inspiring etc, would all be useful in both distracting one's mind from having delusions, hallucinations etc, whilst at the same time, subconsciously instilling into their minds all those optimistic and positive thoughts that one would need to deal with such disorders.



In short, having hallucinations, which to a certain extent might be associated with certain mental disorders, as well as the mental disorders themselves, well, they may be painful experiences to most people, however, it would take just the right treatments and other related remedial factors to achieve holistic healings for such disorders of hallucinations / delusions, other mental disorders etc.

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Mental Disorders - Further Explanations




Actually, in terms of mental disorders which may come along with hallucinations / delusions, all those external aides of medications, psychotherapies, interactive, interpersonal and emotional supports etc, they are all meant for the same ultimate goal of bringing such disorders under control and there is simply no doubt for that.



Next, since it's the ones having mental disorders are who are actually suffering from such illnesses, which arise from negative perceptions, negative feelings and negative thoughts formed in their own brains / minds (instead of other people's brains / minds), it would eventually necessitate they themselves to put in their very own self- efforts, having received both external medicational and interpersonal helps from the others, to exercise self-controls and self-disciplines on their own to direct their own brains for self-reasonings, self-introspections and self-rationalisings.



This is to say, for the self-cognition / thinkings psychological part of the ones having mental diorders to form those positive feelings and positive thoughts in their own minds on their very own, and then to naturally develop postitive behavioural / personality changes, such a cognitive thought / thinking process actually can hardly be 'dictated' by anyone else other than they themselves. In such connection, as to the cognitive / thinking abilities / processes of different individuals, one of the simplest examples will be the process of learning a knowledge or something else whereby a person can get the best text materials, teachers, lecturers, tutors etc to assist one in his / her learnings, however, it would still ultimately depend on the very cognitive ability / process pertaining to that particular person which is then the key decisive factor in determining whether the knowledge is successfully acquired in the end or not.



In short, those self-efforts (related to self-cognitions), in the very end, will eventually be very much essential, or rather the decisive factor in determining whether the persons having mental disorders will achieve improvements / recoveries for their mental conditions or not.

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Mental Disorders / Mental Illnesses - Its Two General Categories : Neurosis & Psychosis - Brief Explanations




Generally, mental disorders / mental illnesses can be summarized into the two broad categories of neurosis and psychosis as explained below : -



- In the case of mental disorders / mental illnesses which mildly disturb the normal functionings of one's cognitive / thinking abilities, functions and processes (of the brains), this would give rise to behavioural problems (that affects only part of the personality), which are quite uncontrollable and involuntary. Next, such scenarios are generally labelled as neuroses. Its common examples would be depression, panic, anxiety, insecurity, irrational fears, obsessive- compulsive Disorders (OCD) hypochondria / neurasthenia etc. In this regard, such antidepressants like Prozac etc are actually meant for such mental disorders / mental illnesses. As such, please refer to the website below for further details :


http://www.drugs.com/mtm/prozac.html



- In the very much serious cases of mental disorders / mental illnesses whereby one's cognitive / thinking abilities, functions and processes (of the brains) are severely disturbed and impaired, this would then cause the much more serious personality disorders which may involve such mentally dissociative states of delusions, hallucinations and in the worst case scenario, insanities. The most common examples would be scizophrenia,schizoaffective disorder, schizophreniform disorder, bipolar disorder, paranoia etc - which are generally labelled aspsychosis. In such a connection, such powerful tranquilizers as the antipsychotics / neuroleptics etc will usually be needed to deal with such much more serious mental disorders / mental illnesses. As such, please refer to the website below for further details :


http://www.answers.com/topic/antipsychotic-1

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Compassionate & Humane Treatments Vs Brutality & Cruelty Treatments For The Mentally-illed Ones




"I disagree. Research and you will find that most people with a mental illness was locked away."



"You may be right, nevertheless, locking such persons away, well, most of the times may just worsen their conditons for the very fact that most of such mentally-illed people might actually have experienced extreme cases of oppression, interpersonal pressures, high stress and sometimes abuses by the other persons before they actually come to develop such mental disorders."



"Next, the surroundings of a limited confined space / environment, which in many cases may just represent some form of oppressions to such people, and well, I don't think that such confined surroundings are, in any way actually conducive to the improvement of the mental conditions of such people, especially when such people are actually locked away for a long period of time, for that may actually constitute another form of extreme oppressions to such people."



"And that's why psychotherapy and other interactive / interpersonal / emotional and communications supports are important for the mental health care of such people."



Well, I have something more to add about these quotations excerpted from the prior posts.



Actually as a part-time social worker, working along with other associates and dealing mainly with the in-patients of the government-funded psychiatric / mental wards and those of the special-care nursing homes, mainly by giving them our voluntary counselling therapies, one very common scenario that me and the other associates of social workers have observed so far, and yet pervasively concealed from the others, is actually the physical abuses, maltreatments and sometimes deliberate tortures etc inflicted by the related operatives-in-charge of such psychiatric facilities onto the mentally-retarded, senile and demented psychiatric in-patients of such medical facilities, which almost invariably go entirely unreported and grossly kept off the records. And most of the times, the victims involved may include those old senile people with impaired hearings, poor visions, severe cognitive problems, parkinson's disease, alzheimers, senile dementia etc. And whenever we come across such scenarios, we would try our best to stop such physical abuses, maltreatments and deliberate tortures from happening.



For your further information, for the psychiatrists and other medical personnel-charge of these medical facilities such as what we have observed so far, they would simply tend to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear on such physical abuses, mistreatments and sometimes deliberate tortures etc which happen in their very presences.



In such a connection, all these scenarios above simply remind me of certain past events, issues and scenarios about the supposedly right and correct way in which the mentally-illed patients should be treated in order to serve their best curative and health care interests in line with the very basic humanitarian grounds.



As such, please consider the following two websites included below :


http://encarta.msn.com/media_461539711/Bedlam.html


http://encarta.msn.com/media_461539709/Pinel_Frees_the_Insane.html



Next, what I wish to say is that, along with everything that has been revealed and established in the distant past, I firmly believe that mentally-illed patients by right should be treated with greater amounts of cares, compassions, kindness, considerations and patience which are in turn geared towards the very practical purposes of the gradual step-by-step improvements of their mental conditions and recoveries of their sanities.



In this regard, brutalities, cruelties, violences, maltreatments, physical abuses, tortures and any other harsh treatments, along with all those intentional, deliberate and purposeful mockings, jeerings, ridicules, derisions, disparagings, scornfulness, sarcasms, insults, humiliations and other hurtful things which are inflicted by the others onto the mentally-illed persons, well, all these malicious acts, such as what the medical histories have undoubtedly revealed, they are in fact far more detrimental and damaging to the mentally-illed persons than the very mental disorders that these pathetic persons themselves are having at the same time.



Well, by right the society should have adopted very much more tolerant, considerate and compassionate approaches towards the ones troubled with mental disorders. This is simply for the fact that treating such mentally-illed people harshly instead of compassionately, that would only serve to make things worse for such people and at the same time, I am in the in the opinion that for those persons choosing to behave like 'bullies', who are actually so unconscionable / conscienless enough to the extent that they would actually bring themselves to purposefully do hurtful things to the mentally-illed ones, the society and community as a whole should feel ashamed of such very malicious acts of theirs.



In addition, there may be certain psychiatric in-patients who tend to behave and respond violently and aggressively to the others. And as social workers, as well as some of the psychiatrists that we work with, we simply understand that they are behaving so substantially, if not totally out of their own free will owing to the overwhelming psychotic influnces of the mental disorders that 'force' them to behave so. However, this is barely and hardly a valid ground for these mentally-illed people to be alienated and denied of any compassions and right treatments that they deserve from the psychiatrists and other related personnel. For your information, whenever we come across such patients, we would always try our best to calm them down at first, and then do our best to get their personal trusts and confidence so that we could go about influencing them in positive and sensible ways later on.



In a nutshell, mentally-illed people, despite the fact that they are mentally-abnormal compared to the perfectly healthy individuals, they are after all human beings just like anyone else. And as such, they would naturally deserve the basic human rights, due respects, cares, compassions and patiences they need from the others for the gradual and step-by-step improvements of their mental conditions , and it is beyond any doubts that such a principle is at least justified on humanitarian grounds.



In this regard, for the brutalities, cruelties, maltreatments, phsycial abuses, deliberate humiliations, derisions, ridicules, disparagings and other purposeful malicious acts administered, or rather inflicted deliberately upon the mentally-illed ones, the society and community as a whole should, by obligations of humanities, put a stop on such heinous, sinister, outrageous atrocities and monstrosities which have been victimizing the mentally-illed ones over the centuries pervasively, ubiquitously, and yet almost totally concealedly.



So, God help us !

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Brutalities, Cruelties, Maltreatments, Phsycial Abuses, Deliberate Humiliations, Derisions, Ridicules, Disparagings And Other Purposeful Malicious Acts Administered, Or Rather Inflicted Deliberately Upon The Mentally-illed Ones





Well, at the same time,



I would like to add that in terms of all those brutalities, cruelties, maltreatments, phsycial abuses, deliberate humiliations, derisions, ridicules, disparagings and other purposeful malicious acts administered, or rather inflicted deliberately upon the mentally-illed ones especially at the hands of all those ill-trained and yet official paramedics, those are exactly the main obstacles and communication barriers that we as social workers often encounter when we try to reach out to and win the trusts and confidences, especially from the institutionalized mentally-illed people. This is due to the very fact that these mentally-illed people would often tend to 'liken' us to all those persons who always do hurtful things to them and as a result, they simply would choose not to co-operate with us in the very first place.



Whilst the key difference is that, when all those 'official medical personnel' who do hurtful things to these mentally-illed in-patients are actually get paid by the hospital administrations, we as social workers providing only unpaid voluntary counselling services to these mentally-illed people, actually need to 'take care of the mess' as well that are left over by all those inconsiderate, or rather inhumane, if not, barbaric 'uniformed medical personnel' working in such medical institutions. And as a matter of fact, sometimes these 'uniformed medical personnel' would simply 'display' their dirty looks and intense urges of 'bashing us up' too especially when we come to advise these people not to use especially unnecessary physical violences and abuses against the old senile demented mentally-illed in-patients who are simply unable to 'obey their orders'.

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What I wish to say is that Mentally-illed people aren't sub-humans / playthings / livestocks / garbages / craps etc





As a matter of fact, the information that I have included in my prior posts are actually the naked truths, or rather the harsh facts of reality which are ubiquitously pervasive, and such malpractices exist as well in the developed nations, and there's simply no way for these realities to be obliterated.



In such a connection, I have learnt about the similar, almost totally-concealed malpractices from my counterparts serving in the other European, African and U.S and other nations worldwide too.



Next, all these atrocities are actually hardly deniable by any truly conscionable persons, and I strongly believe that you will echo our sentiments.



Lastly, what I wish to say is that the mentally-illed people aren't sub-humans / playthings / livestocks / garbages / craps etc, and as such, they would, at least on humanitarian grounds, rightfully deserve the due respects of human rights and other human-related freedoms and privileges and compassions from the others too, rather than being treated with cruelties, brutalities, physical abuses, sarcasms, callouness and other deliberate, and maybe amusement-inducing harsh treatments especially at the hands of the ones who are officially paid to take good care of their welfares and personal well-beings.



And again, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to you all for supporting such a humanitarian cause.