Assessment and Treatments of Schizophrenia and Other Psychotic Disorders

Abstract

Psychiatrists and psychologists rely on the classification systems for mental disorders, just like a systematic classification of physical illnesses. This article focuses on one of the mental disorders that haunt many people around the world and psychiatrists: schizophrenia. Three explanations of schizophrenia will be discussed: the genetic explanation, biochemical explanation and cognitive explanation. The genetic explanation believes schizophrenia can be inherited; the biochemical explanation indicates that the brains of schizophrenia patients produce more dopamine; the cognitive explanation declares that wrong thinking processes cause mental disorders. Furthermore, this article also provides the according treatments using different measures: biochemical (psychotics and atypical psychotics), electro-convulsive therapy, token economy and cognitive-behavioral therapy. Finally, this article evaluates the involved treatment measures including their respective limitation, and points out the future research direction----find a comprehensive approach that combines the advantages of the available treatments and eliminate limitations of the existing treatments.