Schizophrenia is a psychotic mental disorder characterized by severe symptoms. These symptoms vary by patient, but may include hallucination, severe difficulty organizing thoughts, paranoid delusions, a lack of emotional expression or a lack of communication with others. Many people with schizophrenia have no awareness that they are ill. The National Alliance on Mental Illness reports that over 2 million adults in the U.S. have schizophrenia. It usually strikes in the teens or twenties, and many patients face intermittent hospitalization.
Proper Diagnosis
One effect of psychiatric hospitalization is receiving a proper diagnosis. The patient may arrive at a psychiatric hospital or medical hospital emergency room experiencing some type of crisis. This may involve paranoid delusions that someone is trying to harm him, hearing voices telling him to harm someone, or exhibiting such irrational behavior that his family or coworkers called the police or brought him to a hospital. He may be admitted voluntarily or involuntarily for observation while a psychiatrist runs a battery of tests. This is one common route to receiving a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Treatment for the condition can then begin under the care of the psychiatric hospital or psychiatric ward of a medical hospital.
Medication Initiation
People hospitalized for schizophrenia are placed on medications. These medicines are given to help manage their symptoms, such as hearing frightening voices. Most medicines for schizophrenia are strong and have life-threatening potential side effects. Initiating these medicines in the hospital setting allows the staff to see that the person does not have immediate side effects. The proper dosage can also be achieved--giving the patient a balance between symptom reduction and drug side effects. Mayo Clinic advises that it may take several weeks for schizophrenia medicine to reach full therapeutic effect.
Medication Adjustment
Many patients with schizophrenia are hospitalized during medication adjustments. Tolerance may develop over time or a change may have to be made due to long-term side effects. A patient, when living on her own, may decide that she does not need the medication and stop getting it refilled. This often leads to hospitalization until the medicine gets back to a therapeutic level in her bloodstream.
Therapeutic Opportunities
Most patients hospitalized for short-term management of schizophrenia receive therapy designed to help them think more clearly and learn skills to manage their symptoms. This may involve encouragement to communicate with others or helping a paranoid patient realize that others are not trying to harm him. This therapy may allow the patient to transition to partial hospitalization or outpatient care.
Physical Care
People with severe schizophrenia may need physical care as they may not eat or groom themselves without assistance. These patients may require hospitalization if no family members are available to care for them.
Safety
Another effect of hospitalization for people with schizophrenia is safety. A few patients with schizophrenia have episodes of desiring to harm themselves or someone else, requiring hospitalization for their own or for public safety. The psychiatric staff can closely monitor the patient; they may even assign one person to watch the person constantly through each shift--24 hours a day--until the crisis passes.
