Research on Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is often found to be associated with many other effects like substance and drug abuse, smoking, suicide, violence, etc. Schizophrenic people tend to shift towards substance and drug abuse frequently than the normal population.

Again people abusing drugs show very similar symptoms like schizophrenic people. People consuming high doses of drugs are often misdiagnosed to develop schizophrenia. Substance abuse can lower the effect of the treatment for schizophrenia. Drugs like amphetamines or cocaine, marijuana and PCP can worsen the schizophrenic symptoms. Besides substance abuse forces the patients to stop the treatment plan and resort to drug abuse alone.

The most common type of substance abuse in schizophrenic people is a craving for nicotine. Studies have proved that schizophrenic patients addict to nicotine 3 times more likely than the normal population (75-90% in schizophrenic patients as compared to 25-30% normal people). Research has made it clear that nicotine is found to interfere with the mechanism of action of antipsychotic drugs and hence people who abuse nicotine must take higher doses of medication than normal.

Smoking has also been found to be connected to schizophrenia but the actual relationship seems to be complex to be determined. Schizophrenic people are driven to smoking as per studies and scientists are yet to investigate if there exists a biological basis. It is extremely difficult for schizophrenic people to quit smoking, because the withdrawal of nicotine can lead to the worsening of psychotic symptoms temporarily. There are some strategies including nicotine replacement methods to quit smoking for better tolerance. The doctors treating schizophrenic patients must take care and monitor the patient’s reaction to antipsychotic drugs especially when the patient decides to stop smoking.

Schizophrenic patients sometimes resort to suicide owing to their unusual thought processes. The number of suicides attempted can occur very frequently in schizophrenic patients than normal people. Nearly 10% of the attempted people succeed. It is really tough to foretell which schizophrenic patient may attempt suicide and when he does. Hence it is extremely important to obtain professional help immediately when schizophrenic people seem to talk something related to suicide.

All schizophrenic people are not prone to violence. In fact, they prefer to stay alone most of the times. Research suggests that people with no criminal record of violence prior to the development of schizophrenia will never resort to substance abuse and very unlikely to commit any crimes even after the development of the disorder.

The most brutal crimes are not committed by schizophrenic people. But substance or drug abuse can increase the violent behavior of the patient irrespective of the development of schizophrenic disorder. When a person affected by paranoid schizophrenia turns out violent, this violence is frequently directed towards his/her family members at home.