Schizophrenia – What You Should Know

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IF YOU'RE HEADING FOR THE HOSPITAL...

What to Expect While You're There

Treatment for an acute attack can require full-time hospitalization in a locked inpatient unit. As symptoms subside, you may be transferred to a partial care program in which you are able to return home after each day's therapy. Inpatients may wear their own clothes, but are customarily searched for sharp objects such as scissors or nail files, which are held in a staff office. Patients who present a danger outside the hospital can be involuntarily hospitalized for up to 3 days by the police or a doctor. While hospitalized, you may encounter the following procedures.

• Group Therapy: These meetings are somewhat like a support group session, allowing patients to share coping strategies. The meetings are run by medical staff.
• Individual Therapy: This is a time for you to meet alone with your therapist to discuss ways of dealing with the illness.
• Family Meetings: In these sessions, medical staff will prepare you and your family for your return home.
• Time Out: If you become unable to control yourself, the staff may separate you from the other patients, either in your own room or---if you seem violent---in a "safety room."
• Restraints: Patients who pose a danger to themselves or others may be physically restrained with leather bands.
• Electroconvulsive (e-LEK-tro-kun-VUL-siv) Therapy: For patients who become severely withdrawn or depressed, this form of treatment can help speed recovery. Also known as ECT or shock therapy, it applies a mild electric current to the brain. Although the treatment temporarily disrupts the memory, full recall typically returns within 2 weeks.

WHAT YOU SHOULD DO

• Be sure to take your prescribed medication regularly. Symptoms will return if you stop taking the drug. Since these medications can make you drowsy, be cautious when using machinery or driving until you know how the drug affects you. Check with your doctor before taking any other drugs, either prescription or over-the-counter.
• Avoid alcohol and recreational drugs. They can interact with your medication, causing extreme drowsiness and other potentially serious effects.
• Since it's hard to avoid stress, learn to control it with such techniques as deep breathing, relaxing muscles, meditation, or biofeedback. Try not to bottle-up your feelings; talk to your doctors, family, or friends and let them help you. You may also want to join a support group.
• Encourage those close to you to talk to your doctor. He can give them tips on how to respond to the situation.

Call Your Doctor If...

• You're unable to sleep well or find that you are sleeping more than usual.
• You undergo a change in appetite.
• Your medicine makes you drowsy, dizzy, or sick to your stomach.
• You develop any twitches or involuntary movements.

Seek Care Immediately If...

• You begin to have thoughts of suicide or homicide.