Schizophrenia is a psychiatric condition characterized by a chronic brain disorder that generally presents itself in the form of delusions, hallucinations, and has severe effects on an individual’s physical or mental well-being. It disrupts the normal functioning of brain by interfering with cognition, senses and behaviors. Being a chronic mental illness associated with considerable morbidity and mortality rates, schizophrenia presents various barriers when it comes to treatment or management.

Telepsychiatry Expands Access to Online Mental Health Services

Telehealth services such as telepsychiatry helps by increasing the access of online mental health services to the at-risk populations, especially patients in remote areas. Telepsychiatry uses telephone lines and internet-based services such as video conferencing and provides a wide range of treatments ranging from psychology and psychiatry services, medication management and various other therapies depending upon the individual needs of patients.

Understanding Schizophrenia: Symptoms, Impact, and Mental Health Challenges:

Although the symptoms of schizophrenia differ from person to person, they can be broadly classified into three main categories:

1. Cognitive
2. Psychotic and
3. Negative

Psychotic symptoms:

 A person displaying psychotic symptoms often presents with disrupted thoughts and perception. Their thinking, actions and experiences are altered from that of a normal individual. Some of the commonly seen psychotic symptoms include delusions, hallucinations and thought disorder.

• Hallucinations are when a person sees, hears, smells, tastes or feels things that aren’t actually there. One of the most commonly seen examples of hallucinations is hearing voices.
• Delusions are strong beliefs that a person holds. These beliefs are not really true and may seem irrational to other people. Common examples include beliefs that another person is somehow controlling what they think and do. They may feel that people in television shows or on the radio are sending out messages their way, something only they can understand.

Thought disorder is when a person develops unusual and illogical ways of thinking. They may have trouble organizing their speech and thoughts.

Negative symptoms:

Negative symptoms include loss of interest in daily activities, difficulty expressing emotions, lack of motivation, avoiding social interactions or having low energy even for basic activities like grocery shopping, etc.

Cognitive Symptoms:

A person’s cognitive functioning can be considered a one of the best predictors of their day to day functioning. All these above symptoms make a person with schizophrenia:

• Experience mental conditions like anxiety, depression, paranoia and fear.
• Use substances like alcohol or other prescription medicines or even illegal drugs to try and treat the symptoms.

Altogether put, schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders inflict heavy suffering on individuals suffering from it and on those around them. This contributes to a lot of stress on the families and their mental health goes for a toss.

Schizophrenia Management Through Therapy and Telepsychiatry Services:

Schizophrenia management usually involves therapy in the form of counselling, individual and family therapy, behavior therapies like cognitive behavioral therapy, and medication management. Taking help from a psychiatrist or a psychologist in the early stages of the disease has often shown better prognosis. This can be effectively carried out in today’s world through telehealth platforms that provide a wide array of services to choose from. Telepsychiatry provides access to psychiatrists, psychologists and other therapists who offer treatments ranging from psychotherapy to medication management for patients at their convenience and comfort.

Schizophrenia: Understanding Treatment and Remission:

Schizophrenia does not fall under the category of diseases that can be cured completely. But that does not mean that it’s not treatable. A very small minority of people have been known to be cured entirely. But in reality, it is said that there is no cure because no one can say when and if it can relapse. For this reason, experts consider those who recover from schizophrenia, “in remission”.

The Importance of Early Intervention in Schizophrenia and Psychosis:

Early intervention in psychosis is one of the most evidence-based reforms in mental healthcare. Early intervention programs in schizophrenia and other psychoses are aimed at Early Detection (ED) of the disease, preventing progress and providing phase-specific management to prevent the development of chronic disabilities.

Identifying High-Risk Individuals for Schizophrenia

It includes identifying and targeting people who are at high risk of developing schizophrenia- a disease that causes enormous amount of suffering for individuals and their families. Schizophrenia has a poor long-term outcome in more than one-third of the cases reported, despite medications and community care. Being a condition with a high relapse rate, even developed countries see delayed treatment approaches as it takes a lot of time for the families to understand what is happening and seek help from the display of the first signs. By the time help is sought, patients usually have severe chronic disabilities.

Comprehensive Early Intervention Strategies

Early intervention focuses on greater investment of resources in the early stages of the disease to reduce/slow the progression into chronic disability. Early intervention ideally consists of two approaches:

• Target subjects at high risk
• Those who display features of prodrome.

Recognizing Prodromal Symptoms of Schizophrenia

Prodrome in Greek refers to precursor. In psychiatry it means the early signs and symptoms that precede the development of a full-fledged illness/relapse. Clinical features of this phase include early symptoms of anxiety, irritability, depression, insomnia, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities, social withdrawal, etc. a wide array of clinical tools are then employed in the identification and differential diagnoses to clinically distinguish it from a host of other disorders.

Accessing Early Intervention Services Through Telehealth

Thus, early intervention involves delivery of phase specific treatments. This does not simply cover antipsychotic medications for the symptoms. It consists of early identification, detailed assessments, timely management protocols in the form of counselling, individual/group therapy, education and support for the families of the patient, etc. These services can be availed through various telehealth platforms that provide all these facilities through online services which can be accessed easily at home and reduce the efforts needed to a great extent.