[badi1234]

Dear Sir/Madam,
My son is 21 years old and he has schizophrenia almost 4 and a half years. The symptoms were classical for this kind of illness: withdrawal from the society and surrounding, hallucinations, loss of appetite etc.
At the beginning my son was diagnosed from the top psychiatrists from our country that he has some kind of small form of schizophrenia. At one time period the condition got better, but after some intensive psychological effort (taking exams at the university) his condition got worse, and now, almost a year and a half his condition is going down the line.
At the beginning of his treatment he was taking Respiridon from 1 mg, and in time he came to the quantity of 4 mg of Risperidone with combination of Mendilex. But after the doctor saw that this treatment is not helping he subscribe him Olanzepin, pills that my son cannot stand it, so the doctor after this subscribe him Leponex witch he also cannot stand it, and after all this he came back again to Respiridon.
Because his condition got even worse: intensive hallucinations, talking with god, telepathy, etc, and smoking a big quantity of cigarettes on a daily base, self isolation, we were forced to hospitalize him for 2 months. At this institution, for therapy it was given to him a Respiridon, but at bigger dosage. After the doctor saw there was no effect from this drug he slowly transferred him to the drug Leponex, and now his therapy looks like this:

• • In the morning: 75 mg Leponex + Loram;
  • At the lunch: 50 mg Leponex + Loram;
  • At the evening: 100 mg Leponex + Loram.

This therapy he is taking it at the moment and it gives humble results.
I think that the doctors are losing in this therapy circus and they don’t know what kind of therapy to give to him, like nothing is helping.
These doctors are the most respected doctors at this area from my country, so i don’t know who I can ask for help!
Please can you give me some advice?
Can the alternative medicine somehow help?
Thank you in advance.

[pachyderm]

Many of us think that approaches other than medication only are helpful. spiritual_emergency who posts here may be able to point you to sources for that if you can wait for her to reply to your message.

[spiritual_emergency]

Hello badi1234. I recall you being here before. At that time, we had a brief conversation here. One of the links I shared with you at that time was related to schizophrenia and hope. I encouraged you to click on that link and share that information with your son. This is important because often, people have lost hope of recovery for themselves or a loved one. It's good to know that many people do recover.

I'm a little pressed for time right at this particular moment but if you go to my blog and scroll through the table of contents menu on the right side of the page until you reach the category, Alternate Models of Treatment, that area can serve as an introduction to some of the varieties of therapy that are available out there. Note that my interest has been related to psychological treatments but there's no denying that many people identify medication as something that is personally helpful to them. There's no reason why you can't pair a pharmaceutical treatment with a psychological approach if that is what will work best for your son. The best treatment is the one that works for that particular individual.

Note that some, maybe even none of those therapies will be available in your country however that doesn't mean you cannot benefit from educating yourself. For example, I couldn't afford to see a psychiatrist but I could afford to read books and articles written by psychiatrists and use the information gained to my advantage. Good information is still good information whether it comes about in a face-to-face encounter or a study abstract posted on the net.

Also, it would likely be to your son's benefit if he could connect with peers. If you feel comfortable doing so, you may want to share this site with him and then, he could post his own experiences and seek support from others who have gone through similar situations and either recovered from the same or are actively immersed in a recovery process.

I will return to this thread as my own time permits (hopefully, within the next 12 hours) and try to provide you with some more specific information and resources that might help your son at this time.

~ Namaste

.

[iamtwilight]

If you feel comfortable doing so, you may want to share this site with him and then, he could post his own experiences and seek support from others who have gone through similar situations and either recovered from the same or are actively immersed in a recovery process.

That is a wonderful idea, seeing what a warm and welcoming community we have here.

Twilight

[tarabug922]

I can't say that therapy works for schizophrenia, I've been in therapy for a while and it has helped many aspects of my life. but I can say what has worked definitely for me is Abilify. It's a new drug on the market and I can't say enough good about it. I don't know if it will work for your son but keep trying different drugs until you find the right mix that does work.

Tara