My son was diagnosed with schizophrenia at 19 and a freshman in college. Unless you have experienced this event you can not understand what it does to the entire family esp. siblings. Tou grieve for what could have been in the life of your child. You also have to be your childs advocate and fight for medical care sincew they are not insured. I contacted the pharma company and got on their assistance program. They budget funds just for this event. It is really important to get your loved one in a psychosocial program . They can function with both these modalities. My heart goes out to all who are affected by this disease.
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Neurotransmitters are only part of the story. Scientists have discovered genes that guide nerve cells during brain development to migrate to the right place and make the right connections to other nerve cells. Techniques for fixing physiological misfirings caused by mutated genes are still in the realm of science fiction.
Specialized nonpharmacological techniques will also have to be part of standard treatment for this disease. The goal is to start that work as early as possible, in the hope that progression can be halted. Teams of mental-health professionals can help patients find and keep jobs, prevent relapse and allow patients to live independently, while new approaches to psychotherapy help patients cope when drugs fail.
If you are that unsuspecting high-school student with schizophrenia, you, your family and your clinicians may carry frustrating burdens that go beyond the illness. Of all the ways in which the brain can become damaged, schizophrenia remains the least understood and the most frightening. Society sympathizes with stroke victims or Alzheimer's disease sufferers, but it stigmatizes schizophrenia. The illness is exhausting, resources are scarce and humane treatment may be hard to get. Yet research is already showing us the kind of treatment and support that can help. And, in the future, early identification and treatment could prevent the illness entirely.
Ed. Note: Some of the wording of this story has been modified from its original version to more accurately reflect the nature of schizophrenia.
Goff is director of the Schizophrenia Program of the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
© 2008
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