It is a well known fact that schizophrenia is a mental illness that affects quite a large number of people. Its actions on the mind of a person are either mild or severe and symptoms can come in a large variety. New ways of studying the brain have led scientists to a lot of brake troughs. Drugs and treatments are being developed as we speak, in order to better fight the symptoms of this disorder.



The most recent in a big variety of pills are the antipsychotic medications. Doctors usually prescribe them to be taken once a day; they can be taken as a pill, tablet and most recently even as a syrup. Even more efficient are the forms of antipsychotic medications that can be administered through injection. These on the other hand are done once ore twice a month, depending on the severity of the illness of the patient, and still very well fight the symptoms of the disorder, sometimes better than the orally administered drugs. Another reason why the injected form is better than the other type of drugs would be the cases where the patient refuses to willingly take the medication. In this kind of cases measures must be taken for the well being of the patient, and in order to calm down the symptoms of the disease. Still, this kind of treatment is rarely used and only in cases of absolute force when the patient ca not be reasoned with.

Other types of drugs are also prescribed and administered to patients suffering from schizophrenia. This way doctors are capable to fight all the symptoms of the disease and not only the psychosis. Medication like antidepressants and mood stabilizers are also used in cases where the patient may be experiencing extreme stress and depressions or when the behavior of the patient is rather chaotic. Anxiety drugs are again used in combating the anxiety state of the mentally ill person.

As well as many other medication, schizophrenia drugs do also have side effects, some of them quite severe. Some patients may experience body stiffness, tremor in the muscles, slow movement of the limbs, loss of control of facial muscles and expressions and even restlessness. These side effects appear because the direct effect that the drugs have on the dopamine receptors, blocking them in order to be able to fight the symptoms of schizophrenia. Because of this blockage the patient may experience dopamine deficiency and even symptoms similar to the Parkinson's disease.

Because they have less side effects, and even those in milder forms, atypical drugs are starting to be more and more popular than the typical ones. Still some of the side effects of this type of drugs would be weight gain , hyperglycemia and quite high levels of cholesterol in the blood stream of the patent. Other types would be decrease in sexual interest, menstrual problems and skin rashes.