Different Stages of Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a disease that has no cure. Medication is, at present, one of the only ways to treat the disease. As a patient begins the process of medicating his illness, he will undergo a series of repeating stages as the medicine begins to have an affect.

Significance

• People with schizophrenia may present only mild symptoms and experience more severe symptoms that occur once or twice within their lifetimes. Still other people exist at the other extreme and may experience severe, life crippling symptoms on a regular basis. How severely her life is affected depends on what stage the person is in.

Acute Episode

• An acute episode of schizophrenia can occur suddenly or over the course of several months. It is marked by a period of intense psychotic symptoms, which may include hearing voices and having vivid hallucinations of feelings of paranoia.

Stabilization

• Once a patient seeks help and begins to medicate his schizophrenia, a period of stabilization sets in. The patient may still appear to be suffering from psychotic symptoms, but these symptoms are less severe than in the Acute Episode stage.

Maintenance Phase

• Between Acute Episodes, the patient undergoes a period where her more severe symptoms are controlled by medication, though some minor symptoms may remain.

Considerations

• Regardless of the medication a patient takes, he still has schizophrenia. While there are different stages to the disease, they aren't inherently linear and are, in fact, more circular. Patients can develop resistance to their medications or the medication may only be selectively effective due to physiological or environmental factors.