Schizophrenia is a chronic and severe mental health condition characterized by a range of symptoms, including hallucinations, delusions, disorganized thinking, and speech difficulties. Sexual behaviour in individuals with schizophrenia can be affected by a combination of factors, including the symptoms of the condition, medication side effects, social factors, and personal beliefs and values. Research suggests that individuals with schizophrenia are more likely to have issues with intimacy, experience difficulties with sexual functioning, and engage in risky sexual behaviour. Treatment strategies for these issues may include addressing the underlying causes of sexual dysfunction, developing appropriate communication skills, and providing support to promote healthy sexual relationships. Overall, understanding the complex relationship between schizophrenia and sexual behaviour is important for promoting the overall wellbeing of individuals living with this condition.
Objective: Mental health services are placing a greater emphasis on wellbeing and recovery. Services are also prioritizing the early intervention for people with psychosis in order to support mental health and to reduce the negative impact on the person’s life. Positive Psychotherapy is the therapy that directly cultivates subjective wellbeing and it also aligns with attaining personal recovery. Method: A pilot single case experimental design investigated the use of Positive Psychotherapy for people with a first episode of psychosis. Five people (2 males, 3 females) aged between 20 and 47 years, were recruited from the North Dublin Mental Health Services. Results: Positive Psychotherapy was found to be an acceptable therapy with all of the participants completing the intervention. Some improvements were noted within the daily recording of subjective wellbeing, yet the effect of the intervention was not replicated throughout participants. However, there were differences in relation to how people with higher and lower levels of distress experience Positive Psychotherapy. The findings on the standardized wellbeing measures indicate that people recovering from psychosis can attain subjective wellbeing and to the same level as that recorded within the general population. There was clearly a greater drop in participants’ level of distress than an increase in wellbeing on the standardized measures. It may therefore be that distress and wellbeing are distinctive constructs. Reliable change occurred within more people on the clinical measure of distress than on the wellbeing measures, with clinically significant change occurring within most participants. All of the participants’ level of functioning also increased following the intervention. It is recommended for future interventions to align people presenting with similar levels of: distress, wellbeing and features of psychosis. It is also suggested to investigate the links or otherwise between the constructs and the mechanisms underpinning the therapy. Conclusion: There is initial evidence that Positive Psychotherapy is beneficial to the mental health of people recovering from psychosis. This is particularly evident on the standardized clinical measure of distress and in terms of increasing people’s levels of functioning. However, further refined research is clearly warranted.
Background: Resistance to treatment characterizes a substantial portion of patients with schizophrenia. Without adequate symptom control from medication, these patients are left with few therapeutic options. Objective: Given the recent success of Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) in treatment-refractory neuropsychiatric disorders such as depression, obsessivecompulsive disorder, substance use disorder, and Tourette syndrome, we reviewed the existing evidence for DBS in schizophrenia. Methods: We searched PubMed and MEDLINE for articles and conducted a systematic review on DBS as a treatment for schizophrenia in line with the PRISMA-P 2020 guidelines. Results: After the search and screening process, we reviewed a total of three articles with eleven patients implanted. The nucleus accumbens (n = 3), subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (n = 4), habenula (n = 2), and substantia nigra pars reticulata (n = 1) were all targeted for stimulation. Stimulation resulted in symptom reduction on respective outcome measures in nine of ten patients stimulated (one patient was explanted without stimulation). There were ten adverse events across the eleven procedures and five of these were deemed serious adverse events, comparable to other reports of DBS. Three of these events occurred in the same patient, while one event coincided with a patient’s discontinuation of their own antipsychotic regimen. None resulted in permanent harm. Conclusion: Despite a limited experience, DBS is likely safe, and potentially effective in patients with refractory schizophrenia. Further investigation is necessary to establish ideal targets for stimulation.
Discourse task is assumed to unveil the dyssynchrony between thought and language in an Individual with Schizophrenia (IWS). We investigated the narrative discourse abilities of a schizophrenia participant using qualitative and quantitative methods of discourse analysis. Discourse samples of picture description and narration were video recorded and transcribed using International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). The transcribed samples were subjected to two methods of analysis such as qualitative and quantitative discourse analysis to see the pattern of discourse production. The qualitative analysis of discourse was carried out using a standardized “Discourse Analysis Scale” (DAS) and the quantitative analysis was done using Thematic-Unit Analysis (T-unit analysis) for narration and picture description task. The qualitative analysis of discourse revealed deficits at the level of propositional and non-propositional aspects of communication for narration and picture description task. Quantitative analysis revealed a higher proportion of T-units for picture description task. In conclusion, it is important to establish both qualitative and quantitative analysis of discourse to document the presence of deficits at propositional and non-propositional aspects of communication. Using both the method of analysis would help the clinician to profile the cognitive-linguistic impairment in an IWS, which will further facilitate the clinician to device and deliver better treatment for IWS.
We present an analysis of three patients from literature with a malignancy treated with high-dose chemotherapy and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. It is evident that schizophrenia can be transferred during the cell graft from a schizophrenic donor, cured by the graft from a healthy donor, or cured by high-dose therapy and an autologous graft. We suggest that the use of allogeneic MSCs from healthy donors (including MSCs soluble and insoluble paracrine factors) in schizophrenia patients may be an exciting therapeutic option for further exploration.
