All About Schizophrenia and Psychosis

Schizophrenia and Psychosis seem to confuse many people. They may say a person is “psychotic” rather than schizophrenic, but it is the schizophrenia that is the illness while the psychosis is a manifestation of the disease when it is most active.

What is Schizophrenia?

Many people hear the word “schizophrenia” and have a whole host of images that come to mind particularly from what they have seen in the movies. Schizophrenia is a mental illness that is characterized by several behaviors, which can consist of odd and bizarre manifestations and one of the main reasons that people fear it. Delusions are a very common symptom of schizophrenia, where the person believes something to be true that is not. For instance, they may believe that people are out to hurt them or they may think they have super-human powers.

Hallucinations are another manifestation of schizophrenia, which is when the person sees people or things that are not real or they may hear voices. When the disease is most active, it is psychosis that can become a daily occurrence. The goal of mental health care workers is to get the psychosis under control because this will cause the schizophrenia to be less active.

Medications for Schizophrenia and Psychosis

Today, there are many medications that can treat schizophrenia in order to keep the psychosis under control. These include Haldol, perphenazine, Thorazine, and fluphenazine. There are also atypical anti-psychotic drugs available including clozapine, risperdal, Abilify, and geodon. These have shown to be very effective in controlling the psychosis without side effects that are so severe that it causes the patient to eventually stop taking the medications.