Dee+Dee+SCHIZO

1. Was insulin shock therapy a viable clinical treatment? Insulin shock therapy was a therapy that were meant to help patients with schizophrenia, but it was not a viable clinical treatment. We can say that it is not a viable clinical treatment because the cure was not permanent, but temporal. In the movie A Beautiful Mind, John Nash also tries this therapy in order to help him with schizophrenia. Although the therapy does help him to stop hallucinations, when he stops taking the medication, his hallucination comes back. In additional to not being a permanent therapy, it brings a lot of long term side effects.

2. Was John Nash an unusual case, or do you think that many schizophrenic patients can be taught to function in society with without medication? Although John Nash lived in the time where society was not open about schizophrenia, I think John Nash was a usual case because most patients need drugs in order to be taught to function properly in society with medication. It is not just a simple thing to not take medication; some people need it, while some people can handle without the use of drugs. It would probably depend on how bad the effects or the brain damage that caused schizophrenia. However, most people with schizophrenia lack severely organized thinking and appropriate emotions and actions, which it is hard to overcome by itself and needs some kind of mediation to help them overcome it and function well in society.

3. What are the dangers and/or advantages of this type of treatment (re: insulin shock therapy)? If taking insulin shock therapy, some disadvantages that a patient might get is permanent brain damage. Because the insulin shock therapy is lowering down the glucose level of the patient, it can even lead to diabetes to some patients. And also the risk of staying at an unconscious level is much more higher. As well as long terms damages, in addition there are some side effects while taking the drug. Some advantages of this therapy is that the patient who is taking it can temporally reduces the emotions and the behaviors that schizophrenic patients are havin trouble controlling.

4. What is the difference between the treatment of schizophrenia in 1960-1970 and today? The difference between the treatment of schizophrenia in 1960-1970s is that they used electric shock therapies to help cure people with schizophrenia. However, as electric shock therapies were used, there would be too many patients with long term and short term side effects. These days people take antipsychotic drugs because of safety issues for the patients.

5. What are the various types of schizophrenia? Which would you consider the worst case to have? The least worst? Explain why for each. There are five different types of schizophrenia: catatonic, residual, paranoid, disorganized, and undifferentiated. Although among them paranoid type is the most common one, I think that catatonic is the worst one to have. People with catatonic schizophrenia will refuse to move from a position and stay there as long as their bodies don't move. Even though the patient might be in an uncomfortable position, patients with catatonic schizophrenia will be unable to control their body as well as not responding to things as well. So when taking medication or going to therapies, they would not listen well or react as well as other patients. I would say that disorganized would be the least worst because because patients will just jumble out a bunch of words at the same time or sometimes even make a "word salad".

6. What treatments are being pioneered today for schizophrenia? The insulin shock treatment is not allowed any more because of its severe side effects. Nowadays, therapies, diagnosis, and medication such as antipsychotic are well used in schizophrenia patients because it helps reduce the patients emotional and behavioral pains without much side effects.