[kwack30]

I sometimes hear stories about people who suffer from schizophrenia that went through hell finding the “right” medications. I need to know what is typical as far as how medication is supposed to work. Are people really able to live a happy normal life?

My little sister was diagnosed as schizoaffective in 2006; since then she has been hospitalized three times. She never stayed on the medication that she was prescribed because they made her feel “sick”. She had a 3 year gap of having no symptoms but she recently got sick again and it came with vengeance. Now she is on an antidepressant, antipsychotic, and mood stabilizer. The meds are working as far as keeping her from being manic, hallucinating, and paranoid but now she is miserable. She spends hours upon hours in bed (17 hours +). Along with lethargy she can’t think clearly, remember passwords, fill out simple paperwork, make dinner, and worst of all take care of her little ones. She told me last night that she felt worthless and that if she wasn’t here it wouldn’t make a difference to anyone.

My sister calls me every night crying and begging me to help her. She is looking for hope, I am looking for hope. I tell her that it will get better and that she won’t feel this way forever and as much as I believe that what I say SHOULD be true I can’t know for sure. Does it get better for everyone? Do physicians consider my sisters present condition acceptable? I can't imagine that this quality of life is okay.

[mgran]

I agree, I can't see how this could be considered acceptable for your sister to live like this. I think they went into overkill with her meds, and she's over medicated. She will need to get help reducing it down gradually to an acceptable level. And she can get better, I'm sure of it... I know that feeling of being down though, and feeling hopeless because the whole world is so tiring. Reassure her that this isn't forever, and help her make an appointment and keep it. She'll need your support in this, as she won't be able to talk to a doctor by herself yet, she'll be too exhausted and confused. But you can get her there... and you will see her get better.

Give her a hug from me, and tell her I know it will get better.

[RunningEagleRuns]

Life with a mental illness is hard. There are good days and bad days. Life is tough for sure though. People tell me it will get better. And it has, recently. So there is hope. Tell her I say good luck!

[Oxidopamine]

I think it's a bit silly to have her on those 3 types of medications at once and it makes me question what exactly are the medications. Many of the medications have multiple uses, such as a mood-stabilizer also functions as an anti-psychotic, an anti-psychotic also functions as an anti-depressant and so forth. Unfortunately, many of the anti-psychotics do make one feel pretty awful, sluggish and can even have cognitive effects. I only know of ONE anti-psychotic that does not have strong sedation or cognitive effects: sertindole.

Newer anti-psychotic medications strive to reduce side-effects but it's a real challenge. There is a lot of interpersonal variability as you mentioned so some people become a guinea pig until they find the one that "works the best". It's a very tough mental disorder and my sympathies go out to your sister. However, it comes a point where you can over-medicate a person until the symptoms go away and cheer in joy, or there's this, symptoms are gone but she is way over-medicated. I don't know if she's also on very high doses of the medications but I feel the doctor has to re-evaluate the medications because they're not improving her quality of life.

I won't lie to you, there are different types of schizophrenia and some have poor prognoses. The good news is paranoid schizophrenia has the best prognosis. Can the illness get worse? Yes it can. Although I'm not a physician, her treatment is unacceptable. One indicator of whether the illness is getting worse is to do brain-imaging scans, usually MRIs because they give enough needed detail. There are more detailed ones but they become more expensive and less available for public use. She may also have EEG or even MEG tests to evaluate her neural functioning (MEG is a newer and more detailed version of an EEG). Some patients can get worse with time to a point where stronger medications are needed but at the cost of greater side-effects. I'm not saying this will happen to your little sister, it may not.

In the end, since she cannot go by herself to the doctor, you'll have to go with her. If the doctor doesn't want to change her medications, I'd consider going to another one.