Brief Introduction to Schizoaffective disorder
What is Schizoaffective disorder?
Schizoaffective disorder is the amalgamation of schizophrenia and mood disorders, this is perhaps the reason why this specific condition is not as well defined as other mental disorders. People suffering from schizoaffective disorder are often found struggling in their personal and professional lives. Untreated patients find solace in isolation and tend to live lonely lives.
Brief History of Schizoaffective disorder
Jacob Kasanin in 1933 coined the term schizoaffective psychosis, before that this disease was treated as another mental disorder [1]. Since this disease is one of those rare mental disorders in which the patient suffers from both mood swings and schizophrenia, thus the doctors and psychiatrists initially thought it to be another form of schizophrenia. Kasanin was the first person who claimed it to be a special disorder as he thought that this mental condition of patient lied somewhere in between schizophrenia and mood disorder.
How Schizoaffective Disorder Works
Person suffering from schizoaffective disorder is accustomed of having paranoid thoughts and confusions which leads to delusions and hallucinations. Patients have also reported that their thoughts are pretty much disorganized due to which they tend to speak quickly and abruptly in order to overcome their confusions. Depression is another major symptom of schizoaffective disorder that affects the social life of the patient.
Current treatment options for Schizoaffective Disorder
Treatment of Mental Illness before modern medicine.
Doctors usually prescribe therapy and medication in order to overcome depression and mood swings.
Once the patient gets rid of his depression then the process of psychotherapy and counseling starts, which helps the patient come out of his shell. Antidepressants are also recommended by some psychiatrists but should be used carefully.
7 tips to help manage schizoaffective disorder
Schizoaffective disorder is a common mental disorder nowadays and can easily be cured following few simple techniques.
- Antidepressants help the patient get out of depression and also help with the mood swings. These are also found helpful in overcoming feelings of hopelessness and sadness.
- If the patient is having trouble with delusions and hallucinations then antipsychotics are the best solution. Doctors usually prescribe these to the patients who found it difficult to fight absurd thoughts and weird notions. These although prove mighty helpful but should only be used if prescribed by a specialist.
- Mood stabilizers also help if the patient is suffering from bi-polar mental disorder. As the patient goes through different phases of depression and mania, thus these mood stabilizers help the patient stay normal.
- Family counseling is an integral part of treatment of schizoaffective disorder as the patient trusts only few people, thus support from family can help patient recover quickly.
- Group therapy is also advised by some doctors as the patients get to know each other and easily open to people that are suffering from same disorder thus patients recover speedily if they attend regular sessions.
- Counseling is another remedy for this particular disorder and is found to be effective as the specialists use number of techniques which help in the fast recovery of patient.
- Patient himself/herself needs to show courage and should have a strong conviction which will help them come out of this trauma quickly.
References:
1. Schizoaffective disorder, [Available at]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schizoaffective_disorder#History