Schizophrenia

The new edition of this popular handbook has been thoroughly updated to include the latest data concerning treatment of first-episode patients. Drawing from their experience, the authors discuss the presentation and assessment of the first psychotic episode and review the appropriate use of antipsychotic agents and psychosocial approaches in effective management. This is an authoritative text written by a team of highly respected authors for psychiatrists, neurologists, primary care practitioners and health care professional working in psychiatry. Drawing from their experience, the presentation and assessment of the first psychotic episode are discussed, details regarding antipsychotic drugs and their appropriate use are reviewed and psychosocial approaches are examined. The resulting book offers a concise and valuable guide to those wishing to review the latest proposals for the treatment of first-episode psychosis supported by up-to-date references, in a single publication.

A concise, up-to-date consumer guide for people who have schizophrenia and their families. An estimated 51 million people worldwide have schizophrenia, 2.2 million of them in the United States. While early diagnosis and appropriate treatment improve the long-term prognosis, schizophrenia is a disease that is difficult to manage. In Living with Schizophrenia, Drs. Jeffrey Rado and Philip G. Janicak, specialists in treating people who have schizophrenia, offer an easy-to-read primer for people with the disorder, along with their families and other caregivers. Drawing on their combined sixty years of clinical and research experience, Drs. Rado and Janicak define schizophrenia and explain what is known about its causes discuss the difference between negative symptoms (such as lack of emotion and social withdrawal) and positive symptoms (such as hallucinations, delusions, and thought disorders) describe medication and psychosocial and behavioral treatments—and the importance of early diagnosis and treatment for better long-term outcomes explain what people with schizophrenia and their families can do to help keep the person well explore how schizophrenia affects the entire family detail medical conditions that people with schizophrenia are more likely than other people to have—including heart disease, obesity, and diabetes offer key takeaway points for every topic Designed for the lay reader and based on the most recent medical literature, Living with Schizophrenia offers information and understanding to help people coping with this often misunderstood disorder to best achieve recovery and healing.

OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER NATIONAL BESTSELLER The heartrending story of a mid-century American family with twelve children, six of them diagnosed with schizophrenia, that became science's great hope in the quest to understand--even cure--the disease. Don and Mimi Galvin seemed to be living the dream. After World War II, Don's work with the US Air Force brought them to Colorado, where their twelve children perfectly spanned the baby boom: the oldest born in 1945, the youngest in 1965. In those years there was an established script for a family like the Galvins--aspiration, hard work, upward mobility, domestic harmony--and they worked hard to play their parts. But behind the scenes was a different story: psychological breakdown, sudden shocking violence, hidden abuse. By the mid-1970s, six of the ten Galvin boys were diagnosed as schizophrenic. How could all this happen in one family? What took place inside the house on Hidden Valley Road was so extraordinary that the Galvins became one of the first families to be studied by the National Institutes of Mental Health. Their shocking story also offers a shadow history of the science of schizophrenia, from the era of institutionalization, lobotomy and the premise of the schizophrenogenic mother, to the search for genetic markers for the disease, always amidst profound disagreements about the nature of the illness itself. Unknown to the Galvins, samples of their DNA informed decades of genetic research that continues today, offering paths to treatment and even the possibility of the eradication of the disease for future generations. With clarity and compassion, bestselling and award-winning author Robert Kolker uncovers one family's unforgettable legacy of suffering, love and hope.

"With an introduction by Dr. Richard O'Reilly"--Cover.

Schizophrenia is one of the most complex and puzzling diseases toaffect mankind. It is the most common of the severe mentalillnesses (psychoses) with an estimated prevalence of 0.5 - 1% inthe general population and accounts for a very large portion of theday to day workload of the average psychiatrist. 50% of long-termpsychiatric patients in mental hospitals are schizophrenic. There is a great deal of controversy about the causes, diagnosisand treatment of schizophrenia with the consequence that a hugeamount of research is carried out in the field by psychiatrists,psychologists, neuroscientists and pharmacologists. For the averagepractising psychiatrist seeing schizophrenics on a regular basis,making sense of the vast body of information on the subject andfiltering out what is of clinical relevance can be very difficult.There is a constant stream of new drugs emerging and the newergeneration of drugs (the so-called atypicals) is very effective,but often expensive. The Editors (one American and one British) are both highlyrespected clinical psychiatrists who are probably the leadingexperts on schizophrenia from their respective countries andjointly have published almost 150 papers on the subject. They have brought together a strong group of contributors from theUSA, UK and Europe to produce what will be an essential referencefor the trainee and practising psychiatrist. The book consists of four sections; descriptive aspects,causative aspects, physical treatments andpsychological/behavioural/social treatments. There will bediscussion of the theoretical controversies over symptomatology,classification and aetiology, the relationship of schizophrenia tothe other psychoses, the significance of positive and negativesymptoms and pre-morbid personality. There will be chapters onorganic models of schiziophrenia, neurodevelopmental, genetic andstructural studies and the role of high-expressed emotion. Thefinal section will cover social and environmental treatment, therole of the families of schizophrenics and the psychoanalyticaltherapies. There is a new chapter on the patient's perspectivewritten by a former patient.

Schizophrenia is the archetypal form of madness. Schizophrenia is a common disorder and has a devastating effect on sufferers and their families-patients typically hear voices in their heads and hold bizarre beliefs. The schizophrenic patient presented to the public in sensational press reports and lurid films bears little resemblance to reality of the illness. This book describes what schizophrenia is really like, how the illness progresses, and the treatments that have been applied. It also summarizes the most up-to-date knowledge available about the biological bases of this disorder. Finally it attempts to give some idea of what it is like to have schizophrenia and what this disorder tells us about the relationship between mind and brain. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

The brain is the most complex organ in our body. Indeed, it is perhaps the most complex structure we have ever encountered in nature. Both structurally and functionally, there are many peculiarities that differentiate the brain from all other organs. The brain is our connection to the world around us and by governing nervous system and higher function, any disturbance induces severe neurological and psychiatric disorders that can have a devastating effect on quality of life. Our understanding of the physiology and biochemistry of the brain has improved dramatically in the last two decades. In particular, the critical role of cations, including magnesium, has become evident, even if incompletely understood at a mechanistic level. The exact role and regulation of magnesium, in particular, remains elusive, largely because intracellular levels are so difficult to routinely quantify. Nonetheless, the importance of magnesium to normal central nervous system activity is self-evident given the complicated homeostatic mechanisms that maintain the concentration of this cation within strict limits essential for normal physiology and metabolism. There is also considerable accumulating evidence to suggest alterations to some brain functions in both normal and pathological conditions may be linked to alterations in local magnesium concentration. This book, containing chapters written by some of the foremost experts in the field of magnesium research, brings together the latest in experimental and clinical magnesium research as it relates to the central nervous system. It offers a complete and updated view of magnesiums involvement in central nervous system function and in so doing, brings together two main pillars of contemporary neuroscience research, namely providing an explanation for the molecular mechanisms involved in brain function, and emphasizing the connections between the molecular changes and behavior. It is the untiring efforts of those magnesium researchers who have dedicated their lives to unraveling the mysteries of magnesiums role in biological systems that has inspired the collation of this volume of work.

This volume presents a novel, international research study that reconceptualizes schizophrenia through an investigation of ways in which the first-hand experiences of those with a diagnosis differ from conventional diagnostic definitions. Offering insight into the history of psychiatric taxonomies in general and the invention of the schizophrenia diagnosis in particular, Reconceptualizing Schizophrenia maps the emergence of uncertainties about the empirical and conceptual status of contemporary diagnostic systems. Particular focus is given to the heterogeneity problem, or the problem of wide empirical variation within and between disorder categories. At the heart of this book are interviews with mental health service users with psychotic-disorder diagnoses in New York City and Jerusalem. Through a detailed portrait of their existential and socio-institutional worlds, the book unveils a way of being-in-the-world characterized by the experience of feeling profoundly vulnerable and unsafe in an inhospitable world as well as foreclosed from belonging to one or more human communities. As this psychological portrait of urhomelessness unfolds, the reader becomes slowly aware of the relationships between psychotic experiences – often thought to be bizarre or ‘un-understandable’ – and the timeless ways in which all humans seek to dwell in the world. Making an important contribution to the phenomenological-existential literature on psychosis, and demonstrating interdisciplinary and transcultural approaches to understanding anomalous experiences, this volume will be of great interest to researchers and scholars of transcultural psychiatry, clinical psychology, and critical theory.