Schizophrenia, as a serious mental disorder, often leads to the individual’s cognition, emotions, intentions, and actions being out of sync.
Put simply, if the human brain is likened to a computer, this computer has both system software, such as perception, cognitive functions, and feature-rich everyday applications, such as thinking, emotions. Schizophrenia is like a virus, not only preventing you from using these everyday applications normally but also affecting the system software.
I. Brain Disorders Caused by Schizophrenia
1. Attention Disorders
Involving auditory and visual attention, this is the primary reason for the difficulty patients face in processing information. Symptoms include: scattered attention, easily distracted by irrelevant things, noticeably decreased active attention; difficulties in attention focus and shift; selective attention disorders, unable to effectively exclude distractions when facing events that disrupt attention; decreased level and ability to react to external stimuli.
2. Memory Disorders
Mainly include working memory, learning memory, immediate memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory. Patients are unable to effectively remember and recall certain information, or have incoherent memories of past events, even memory loss or alteration, leading to the inability to complete normal tasks. Memory disorders seriously impact the patient’s work, learning, and life, forming the basis for social functional impairment.
3. Executive Function Disorders
Executive function is an important high-level cognitive processing process, integrating different cognitive processing processes flexibly to achieve a specific goal through cooperative operation. Patients with executive function disorders often exhibit abnormalities in cognition, emotions, and social functioning, unable to implement plans and solve problems normally.
II. Rehabilitation Criteria for Schizophrenia
In China, the hospitalization period for schizophrenic patients is generally 1-2 treatment courses, with each course lasting 3 months. The observation period for drug efficacy should be after the psychotropic drug dosage has been increased to a therapeutic dose for 6-8 weeks. If there is a significant improvement in psychotic symptoms, it indicates the effectiveness of the medication; hence, the first 3 months of hospitalization are usually the acute treatment period for schizophrenia.
During the acute treatment period, the main focus is on treating psychotic symptoms such as delusions, emotional indifference, and withdrawal of volition behavior.
After this treatment period, most schizophrenic patients meet the clinical recovery criteria, where psychotic symptoms disappear, thinking is logical, emotions are harmonious, some recovery in social and work abilities is observed, and insight (degree of awareness of one’s illness) is fully or partially regained.
III. How to Help Patients Recover Social Functioning
Except for very severe patients, such as those identified as severely mentally disabled, which can be quite challenging, other patients can gradually reintegrate into society and normal life through rehabilitation exercises.
Of course, the premise for reintegrating into society is disease stability and no risk of relapse, which requires patients to manage medication and symptoms well to prevent relapse. Patients can improve medication compliance and prevent relapse through training on self-administration of medication and symptom monitoring skills.
Upon a stable condition, the following rehabilitation exercises can facilitate a gradual return to society:
1. Daily life and social skills training: Enhance personal daily activities, financial management, medical care, etc., through skill training and role-playing, improve social skills, and enhance social adaptability.
2. Cognitive training: Improve patients’ attention, memory, and executive functions through cognitive training, laying a foundation for further functional recovery.
3. Art-based therapy: Improve cognitive function, regulate emotions, and promote physical and mental recovery through art therapies such as painting, music, dance, and handicrafts.
4. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: Improve patient emotions and behaviors by identifying emotions and underlying cognitive biases, promoting social functional recovery.
5. Occupational rehabilitation: Learn basic occupational skills through methods like role-playing to facilitate patients’ return to society.
6. Physical therapy: Common physical therapies for schizophrenia, such as electroconvulsive therapy without seizures, can serve as an adjunctive treatment for disease recovery.
