schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a long-term mental health condition that causes a range of different psychological symptoms. These include: hallucinations (hearing or seeing things that do not exist), delusions (unusual beliefs that are not based on reality and often contradict the evidence), muddled thoughts based on the hallucinations or delusions, and changes in behaviour. Doctors describe schizophrenia as a psychotic illness. This means that sometimes a person may not be able to distinguish their own thoughts and ideas from reality.

Our schizophrenia Blogs

Optimal antipsychotic dosing in first-episode schizophrenia: how much is too little, too much, or just right?

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Joe Pierre reports on the first published study exploring the relationship between antipsychotic dose and risk of relapse in first episode schizophrenia, which suggests that standard antipsychotic dosing is best for relapse prevention.

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Uncertainties about stopping or reducing antipsychotics as shared by families

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Amelia Talbot considers a qualitative study that explores family members’ perspectives on reducing or discontinuing antipsychotic medication.

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Can therapeutic alliance help prevent suicide in people with psychosis?

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Melanie Lafanechere and Dafni Katsampa summarise a study on the therapeutic alliance and suicidal experiences in people with psychosis receiving Cognitive Behavioural Suicide Prevention Therapy.

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Mental disorder and homicide: are rates and sentencing patterns changing?

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Danny Whiting reports on a study of mental health problems and long-term national trends in rates and court outcome for people convicted of homicide.

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Do different groups of people with schizophrenia respond differently to different antipsychotics?

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Murtada Alsaif considers a systematic review and meta-analysis published in the Lancet Psychiatry exploring the response of different subgroups of patients with schizophrenia to different antipsychotic drugs.

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Oral health interventions for people with severe mental illness: what enables and prevents people from accessing them?

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Vishal Aggarwal considers the findings of a recent qualitative study, which looks at the contextual factors, barriers, and facilitators to accessing oral health interventions for people with severe mental illness.

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Schizophrenia and educational attainment: mind the gap

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Ian Kelleher considers a new systematic review of papers from across the world, which looks at the enduring gap in educational attainment for people with schizophrenia.

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To stay on antipsychotics or not to stay on antipsychotics? A longstanding question with an update

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Joe Pierre considers a recent network meta-analysis on continuing, reducing, switching, or stopping antipsychotics in individuals with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders who are clinically stable.

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How do prelingually deaf people with schizophrenia experience hallucinations?

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Charlotte Huggett and Sophie Paul explore an important review looking at the content and modality of hallucinations in prelingually deaf people with schizophrenia.

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What’s the link between neurodevelopmental or mental disorders and school absence or exclusion?

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Chris Fielding summarises a Welsh cohort study which finds that neurodevelopmental and mental disorders are linked to school absenteeism and exclusion.

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