Hello... my mother had her first breakdown when I was about 11 years old. When my dad passed away 5 1/2 years ago, Mom was unable to live alone so I and my family (husband and our 5 children) moved in with her. In the last 5 1/2 years, particularly the last 2 years, her condition has deteriorated at a disturbing rate. For about 10 years she managed her illness on 1 mg of Haldol with occasional episodes of paranoia that wouldn't last very long. She was able to occasionally drive herself to run errands locally, she would sometimes visit her siblings that live locally, her hygiene was relatively normal, etc. In the last 2 years, the delusions have increased, anxiety has become a problem, and she is taking a LOT of medication. She is currently on 4 medications... 20mg haldol, 600 mg seroquel, and she was recently put on 2 others that I cannot recall the names of (1 was something like Cloanzapam but I know I don't have the spelling right... maybe you can decipher), but 1 is for anxiety and 1 is for depression. Despite all of this medication, she still has some delusions, her anxiety has improved, but is still apparent, and physically she looks as though she's aged 10 years in about 1 year. At this point, she is unable to drive anywhere, she refuses to stay home alone (particularly at night, but even during the day this is sometimes a problem), and her personal hygiene is horrible. My question is about the long term effects of this disease. Her original diagnosis was paranoid schizophrenia and about 5 years ago she changed doctors and they changed her diagnosis to schizoaffective disorder because of the major depression. I have tried to find information for long term effects, but to this point have been unsuccessful. It's very upsetting to know that Mom was once a very intelligent, beautiful, well-kept, graceful, active, and social woman and she has become very forgetful (even having problems with simple math), overly aged, careless, lazy, and secluded. In the last 5 years our relationship has switched from her being the parent and me being her child to me playing her mother and her playing the child. Is her condition going to continue to worsen as she continues to age? She's 59 right now but she moves, talks, and acts like she's about 80. Any advice would be SO helpful. Thank you!
My Mother has had schizophrenia for about 24 years... Looking for Information
by f8ed4musicSaturday, December 29, 2007





















