Humans ; Aged ; Psychotic Disorders/therapy* ; Acute Disease

Up to the present date, the principle of antipsychotics treatment in patients with schizophrenia is antipsychotics monotherapy. The reasons for the drug monotherapy may be associated with the fact that typical antipsychotics were assumed to have similar mechanism of action and that combination use of more than two antipsychotics would offer no benefit over that of monotherapy with the agents. However, because the newer `atypical' antipsychotics have the notable features in their diverse pharmacologic action and lower adverse event profiles, many practitioners have an interest in using the combination therapy. Some patients with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder have no response to atypical antipsychotics and the studies increasingly reported that the antipsychotics combinations improve the symptom profiles of psychotic patients. Thus, the antipsychotic combination therapy is an additional option in treatment-resistant psychotic patients. These combination therapies are commonly used in clinical practice, but we are in lack of the evidence of the rationale and background of this practice. Since most studies for antipsychotics combination therapy are open trial or retrospective study, we need the further prospective clinical studies with double-blind, placebo-controlled design in order to definitively determine the effectiveness of such practice.
Antipsychotic Agents* ; Drug Therapy, Combination ; Humans ; Psychotic Disorders ; Schizophrenia

Humans ; Parkinson Disease/drug therapy* ; Prevalence ; Southeast Asian People ; Psychotic Disorders/drug therapy* ; Antipsychotic Agents

This is the report of our clinical experience of 1365 cases of aneethesia for eelectroconvu lsive therapy at the Department of Anesthsiology, Maryknoll Hospital, during the period of March, 1989 to February, 1986. To prevent complications, suck as compressed fracture of the spine, and to improve doctor-patient relationship, softening electroconvulsive therapy is the preferred treatment for indicated cases.The results were as follows: 1) Diagnostic distribution of the patients treated by E.C,T. were schizophrenia 74.3%, affective disorder 15.0%, other psychosis 10.7$. 2) Average number of treatments given to a patient were average 6.7 times, for the entire group,7.8times for schizophrenia, 8.2 times for the patients with mania,5.5 times for the Patients with major depression, 5.6 times for the patients with the other psychosises. 3) Medication required was sufficient with half the dosage of uaual surgical procedu res ; ie, atropine sulfate 0.008 mg/kg, thiopental sodium 2.5 mg/kg, and succinylcholine 0.5 mg /kg. 4) Duration of apnea averaged 2 minutes 30 seconds, awakening averaged 10 minutes, and average duration per treatment was 15 min. 5) Few patients complained of discomfort or phobia, and less personnel and less effort were required. Complications and side effecta due to anesthesia were minimal.
Anesthesia ; Anesthesia, General* ; Apnea ; Atropine ; Depression ; Electroconvulsive Therapy* ; Humans ; Mood Disorders ; Phobic Disorders ; Psychotic Disorders ; Schizophrenia ; Spine ; Succinylcholine ; Thiopental

Cognitive deficit is frequently observed in patients with schizophrenia. It is significantly associated with functional outcome. In the past 20 years, due to significant advances on the concept of schizophrenia, cognitive deficit has been accepted as a core feature. In the DSM-5, cognitive deficit does not introduce diagnostic criteria of schizophrenia, but did one dimension of diagnosis of psychosis. Existing schizophrenia drugs are effective in treatment of positive symptoms of schizophrenia, but lack of effectiveness on improving cognitive function. Led by NIMH (National Institute of Mental Health), the MATRICS (Measurement and Treatment Research to Improve Cognition in Schizophrenia) meeting was conducted in order to achieve consensus on measuring tools and neuropharmacological targets for clinical trials for development of new drugs for improvement of cognitive function in schizophrenia. At the MATRICS consensus meeting, glutamatergic modulators and nicotinic and muscarinic agonists are expected to be promising, but should be proven by a double-blind placebo-controlled multicenter study for patients.
Cognition ; Consensus ; Diagnosis ; Drug Therapy ; Humans ; Muscarinic Agonists ; National Institute of Mental Health (U.S.) ; Psychotic Disorders ; Schizophrenia*

Behavioral and psychological symptoms in dementia (BPSD) are one of the common causes leading to significant impairment in quality of life for both patients and their caregivers, as well as an increased risk of institutionalization. In the treatment of BPSD, the first step is to check medical illness, and environmental status that can cause BPSD. When BPSD are associated with medical illness or environmental status, it is important to correct this condition for treatment of BPSD. However, if BPSD are very severe enough to be dangerous to patients or others and are not treatable by nonpharmacological approaches, pharmacological treatments could be considered. In pharmacological approaches, it is important to select relevant drugs according to the target symptoms, such as psychosis, depression, agitation, sleep disturbance, and so on. Due to the altered pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, drug dosages for the patients with dementia should be started very low and increased slowly.
Caregivers ; Dementia* ; Depression ; Dihydroergotamine ; Drug Therapy* ; Humans ; Institutionalization ; Pharmacokinetics ; Psychotic Disorders ; Quality of Life ; Resin Cements

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is recommended for patients with psychotic disorders that do not respond to medication. Usually, many psychotropic medications have teratogenic effects on the fetus. ECT seems to be a relatively safe and effective treatment during pregnancy. We report here on a 33-year-old primigravida patient in her third trimester receiving ECT.
Adult ; Electroconvulsive Therapy ; Female ; Fetus ; Humans ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy Trimester, Third ; Psychotic Disorders

OBJECTIVES: Cognitive behavioral therapy for treatment of schizophrenia was designed as a psychological therapy for treatment of drug resistant patients with schizophrenia. This therapy is currently being widely applied from early psychosis to chronic condition. The aim of this article is to review the main results of research articles on cognitive behavioral therapy of schizophrenia and prompt practicing the therapy in Korean mental health services. METHODS: The important original and review articles were referred in order to understand the main results of research from published international books, and the English website Pubmed was searched in order to update recent findings. This article reviewed the results of four areas of different phases and types of cognitive behavioral therapy for treatment of schizophrenia: drug resistant chronic patients, acute psychotic state, prodromal phase, and group cognitive behavioral therapy. RESULTS: Cognitive behavioral therapy for treatment of drug resistant patients with schizophrenia can attenuate the positive and general symptoms more than that for patients who receive supportive psychotherapy or treatment as usual. However, the effect appears to be less than previously expected, small to moderate. Cognitive behavioral therapy for patients of acute psychotic state can reduce the time of recovery from acute psychotic symptoms by approximately 25%. The result of cognitive behavioral therapy for patients of prodromal phase shows that the therapy can reduce the rate of transition to schizophrenia by up to one third. Group behavioral therapy has recently been tested. Group therapists have suggested that the therapy should be applied through the way of groups with relatively homogenous symptoms. However, whether the therapy can reduce the severity of hallucination in the voice hearer group is inconclusive. CONCLUSION: Alongside pharmacotherapy for treatment of schizophrenia, cognitive behavioral therapy is a distinct psychological therapy for attenuation of psychotic symptoms. The effect of cognitive behavioral therapy appears to last for one year and requires additional therapeutic sessions after one year. The effect is not still clear in group cognitive behavioral therapy for treatment of schizophrenia. Cognitive behavioral therapy for treatment of schizophrenia should be practiced widely in the Korean mental health system.
Cognitive Therapy ; Hallucinations ; Humans ; Mental Health ; Prodromal Symptoms ; Psychotherapy ; Psychotic Disorders ; Schizophrenia ; Voice

INTRODUCTIONPolypharmacy is very common in the psychiatric setting despite the lack of evidence to justify its use. The objective of this study was to review the prescription patterns in a tertiary mental health institute in Asia and evaluate the impact of a treatment algorithm for patients with first-episode psychosis (FEP) on the use of polypharmacy.

MATERIALS AND METHODSA treatment algorithm was implemented for patients accepted into an Early Psychosis Intervention Programme (EPIP) and the prescription patterns of these patients were compared with a comparator group (pre-EPIP) before the use of the algorithm. The prescribing pattern was established at 2 points: at baseline after the diagnosis was made, and 3 months later.

RESULTSThere were 68 subjects in the comparator group and 483 EPIP patients; the latter were on the average younger. None in the comparator group was diagnosed to have an affective psychosis. There was a significant reduction in the rate of antipsychotic polypharmacy, prolonged use of benzodiazepines and anticholinergic medication in EPIP patients. This group also had an increase in the use of second-generation antipsychotics and received lower doses of antipsychotics.

CONCLUSIONThe implementation of a treatment algorithm coupled with audit has changed the trend towards polypharmacy among patients with FEP.

Adult ; Algorithms ; Antipsychotic Agents ; administration & dosage ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Polypharmacy ; Psychotic Disorders ; drug therapy

OBJECTIVE: The present study aimed to report the initial seizure threshold (IST) of a brief-pulse bilateral electroconvulsive therapy (BP-BL ECT) in Korean patients with schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder and to identify IST predictors. METHODS: Among 67 patients who received ECT and diagnosed with schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder based on the criteria of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision, we included 56 patients who received 1-millisecond BP-BL ECT after anesthesia with sodium thiopental between March 2012 and June 2018. Demographic and clinical information was gathered from electronic medical records, and a multiple regression analysis was conducted to identify predictors of the IST. RESULTS: The mean age of the patients was 36.9±12.0 years and 30 (53.6%) patients were male. The mean and median IST were 105.9±54.5 and 96 millicoulombs (mC), respectively. The IST was predicted by age, gender, and dose (mg/kg) of sodium thiopental. Other physical and clinical variables were not associated with the IST. CONCLUSION: The present study demonstrated that the IST of 1-ms BP-BL ECT following sodium thiopental anesthesia in Korean patients was comparable to those reported in previous literature. The IST was associated with age, gender, and dose of sodium thiopental.
Anesthesia ; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ; Electroconvulsive Therapy ; Electronic Health Records ; Humans ; Male ; Psychotic Disorders ; Schizophrenia ; Seizures ; Sodium ; Thiopental