Mentally ill patients being “quiet” does not necessarily mean they are cured.

Many prominent manifestations of mental and psychological disorders include patients showing emotional instability and excessive behavior.
After treatment, patients become calm and do not make a fuss, nor harm themselves or others. Family members often believe this signifies recovery, when in reality it may not be the case.
Some symptoms of mental and psychological disorders:
“Not agitated.”
For more severe mental health issues, such as manic episodes of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, patients are more prone to excitement, impulsiveness, and irritability, which, due to their abnormality, are naturally considered as the main or even sole symptoms.
However, the symptoms of “mental illness” go beyond these. For example, in addition to the “positive symptoms” of schizophrenia—hallucinations, disorganized thinking, and unusual behaviour or thoughts, patients may also experience cognitive impairment, such as poverty of thought, emotional blunting, apathy, and withdrawal, which are signs of impaired mental functions and are termed “negative symptoms” due to their subtlety.
Furthermore, patients with schizophrenia may also experience cognitive impairments, such as decreased fluency of thought, memory, attention, and executive function.
Negative symptoms and cognitive impairments are relatively covert and may go unnoticed if not professionally examined, making them hard to detect.
Therefore, if after treatment, the positive symptoms decrease or disappear, it may be mistakenly assumed that the patient has recovered and further examination or treatment is omitted, leading to potential new problems.
For instance, their psychological deficits may become apparent in school or work—being unable to understand the knowledge taught, failing to complete assigned tasks, making frequent errors, and procrastinating. These indicate that the patient’s mental symptoms have not been fully resolved.
Some patients with bipolar disorder or depression, particularly those with a long course of illness, may also experience cognitive decline.
The most common manifestations include poor memory, forgetfulness; inability to focus, restlessness, and distractibility; indecisiveness during decision-making, diminished reflexes, etc. When these signs are present, it indicates that the illness has not been resolved.
How is a mental and psychological disorder considered to be cured?
Usually, there are two assessment dimensions:
1. Clinical cure—after treatment, all mental symptoms subside or alleviate, and the individual no longer fits the medical definition of a patient.
2. Recovery—patients not only show no symptoms but also fully restore their social functions. Social function refers to an individual’s capabilities in life, work, study, interpersonal interactions, etc.
For example, a student recovering from depression may show no symptoms upon psychiatric examination post-treatment, but upon returning to school, they may exhibit various adjustment issues, indicating clinical rather than complete recovery.
Treatment should adhere to the entire course of the illness.
Mental and psychological disorders mostly fall under chronic illnesses and are not like common colds where symptoms disappear after medication discontinuation. These disorders cover a wide range—from common sleep disorders, neuroses to depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, etc., each with varying manifestations and prognoses, but experts unanimously agree on the necessity of adhering to the full course of treatment.
The full course usually includes the acute phase, consolidation phase, and maintenance phase.
The acute phase refers to the period with rich symptoms after the onset of the illness, where treatment focuses on symptom control with the goal of achieving clinical cure, while also promoting the restoration of the patient’s social functions and improving their quality of life.
In the subsequent consolidation phase, it is essential to maintain the original medication regimen to prevent a relapse and symptom resurgence. After this phase, the maintenance phase begins, during which, under medical guidance, the patient can gradually reduce medication dosages.
Therefore, patients and their families should realize that even if there are no longer disruptive behaviors, consolidation and maintenance are still necessary for recovery.
Resistance to continuing medication should be avoided, as medications are one of the most effective means to decrease disease recurrence and maintain efficacy.
Of course, medication is only the basis; it is also crucial to encourage patients to maintain regular routines, engage in physical activity, achieve self-care and independence, foster interpersonal relationships, consider returning to study or work, and gradually resume their original social roles. Achieving long-term stability in all these areas signifies true recovery. Though the entirety of the treatment process may be lengthy, persisting with “long-term treatment” is the key to securing “lasting well-being.”
Source: Shaanxi People’s Health
Editor: Municipal Health Commission Office of the Communist Party of China