Biological Therapies Used to Treat Sz

About 1% of the population over the age of 18 suffer from SZ. There is no cure for it however there are therapies such as biological therapies which reduces the symptoms of SZ. Biological therapies include drugs, ECT and Psychosurgery.

Antipsychotic drugs are a group of psychoactive drugs altering brain functions and resulting in changes to perception and behaviour which are commonly used to treat SZ and other abnormalities. There are two types of antipsychotic drugs - Typical antipsychotics and Atypical antipsychotics. These antipsychotic drugs are very useful for treating SZ. During 1950's Typical antipsychotics were developed. These drugs are very useful in treating SZ symptoms like hallucination and delusional. As people with SZ have problems with these symptoms, caused by too much dopamine as this is involved with perception i.e. hearing, seeing therefore too much dopamine means too much perception. Thus, antipsychotic blocks the dopamine receptors by fitting into the receptor space usually reserved for dopamine. But antipsychotic drugs have to be selective for Dopamine Hypothesis only; if the drugs block all dopamine receptors then it can upset muscle control. Therefore many patients may have to try several different antipsychotic medications before they find one that works best for them which can be a hassle for people.

Typical antipsychotic drug was the first generation of drug which was a medical breakthrough and improved the quality of many people's lives. They are also easy to administer and cheap. However there are many side effects and only treats positive symptoms. About 30% of patients either do not respond to the antipsychotic drugs or are intolerant to them which shows that antipsychotic drugs does not work for all the patients. In addition Tardive Dyskinesia was developed by 25 % of people after taking Typical antipsychotic for 7 years. In addition symptoms are returned if the medication is stopped resulting in a high relapse rate.

But the review done by Davis et al 29 studies found that there was a higher relapse rate using the placebo i.e. 55 % for placebo and 19 % for drugs. But Ross et all suggested that the study was misleading as it did not take into account that 45 % of people did benefit from the placebo. They also suggested that these drugs reduce the symptoms but not the cause therefore; they decrease the motivation of the patients to find their cause of SZ.7

Over the years new types of antipsychotic drugs were developed called Atypical antipsychotic. This antipsychotic avoids some of the problems of the older drugs. They work differently from Typical in that they can only attach to the specific D2 dopamine receptors. But like Typical, these antipsychotic drugs are effective in reducing the positive symptoms like hallucinations but unlike Typical they may be better in treating negative symptoms such as lack of energy. However there is no solid evidence to show how useful they can be on treating negative symptoms.

Atypical antipsychotic drugs only blocks dopamine therefore there are less side effects so patients are more likely to continue taking the drugs and see the benefits. They are also improved to work to those who are resistant to Typical however, Typical antipsychotic are given first to the patients because Atypical drugs can cause life threatening conditions called Agranulocytosis which suppresses the development of bone marrow reducing the number of white blood cells. Therefore regular blood tests are carried out which make the treatment expensive and time consuming. There is also less occurrence of Tardive Dyskinesia. This was shown on the study done by Jeste et al who found that after 9 months, 30 % of patients using Typical developed the disease compared to 5 % using Atypical drugs.

Antipsychotic drugs have helped to change the life for SZ patients as before these drugs, 50 % of SZ patients used to stay in hospital for life. But now only 3 % of SZ patients are in hospitals for a few weeks. This meaning that the patients