Scholarly Article Review of Negative Symptoms of Schizophrenia: An update on Identification and Treatment
Introduction
Schizophrenia is one of mental health illness that affects many people worldwide. It causes many functional impairments to them, such as daily living skills, social interactions, and occupational/educational performance and achievement (Velligan & Alphs, 2014). It costs a lot of money while there is a decrease in productivity due to this illness (Velligan & Alphs, 2014). The early recognition will be beneficial to their life and manage the illness.
Article Summary
This article is focusing on current ways of assessing negative symptoms and treatments that currently used for patients who show negative symptoms in schizophrenia. Characteristics of negative symptoms are explained by a decreased emotional responsiveness, socialization, motivation, movement and speech. And those symptoms are related to the pathophysiology of schizophrenia or derivative of other symptoms of medication or other disease processes. For example, symptoms such as akinesia and blunted affect are produced by antipsychotic medication. Also, depression person may experience anhedonia, social withdrawal, and decreased motivation.
According to the article (2014), negative symptoms are assessed by Negative Symptom Assessment (NSA-16). This assessment tool helps to find the presence, severity, and range of the negative symptoms often associated with schizophrenia (eprovide.mapi-trust, n.d.). But it is not useful for routine use in a public setting. So instead of NSA-16, two 4-item versions of negative symptom rating scales are used to quickly identify and record symptoms.
There are options for treatment of negative symptoms which are mostly based on factors that cause symptoms. For examples, if negative symptoms are due to antipsychotic medication or extrapyramidal syndrome, the symptoms can be decreased by decreasing the dosage of the antipsychotic medication or prescribing other medication that produces fewer EPS. Also, if the symptoms are results of depression, treatment of depression will be considered. In addition, the article explains that if antipsychotic and adjunctive treatments are used with psychosocial interventions, it may improve negative symptom outcomes more than pharmacotherapy used alone (Velligan & Alphs, 2014). And the article from science direct ( n.d.) shows that about 80% of schizophrenia patients showed functional improvement with combining therapy.
This article can be used as an educational material for caregivers, nurses or medical staff members because it briefly explains negative symptoms, assessment, and treatment option of schizophrenia. It also includes a conversation with a patient who has the mental illness which gives a good example of some symptoms of it.
Also, it can be used as a study material for me because this article contains information that school textbook does not. For example, even though it depends on the genetic variation in folate absorption, folic acid and vitamin B12 help to improve negative symptoms. This information gives me an idea that how specific and balanced nutrition affects mental illness.
Article critique
This article provides information regarding negative symptoms, assessment, and treatment of schizophrenia in a short and brief way and provides up to date information which help reader to obtain the information easily and to renew their knowledge of this illness.
Even though this article mainly focuses on negative symptoms of schizophrenia, I did not provide information regarding positive symptoms of schizophrenia. For people who learn this mental health illness for the first time, they would be confused or feel something is missing in this article. A brief explanation of this illness and comparison of those two symptoms will provide a clear understanding of this illness more effectively.
Conclusion
Like any other mental illness, schizophrenia affects in our life not only for a patient who has this illness, but also people who care the patient. Negative symptoms are more difficult to treat than positive symptoms and tend to continue longer than another. Identifying of its symptoms is important to treat and to manage the illness and treatment may be different based on the symptoms. The best treatment outcome results when antipsychotic treatments are combined with psychosocial interventions such as environmental supports and social skills training (Velligan & Alphs, 2014).
References
The beneficial effects of combining pharmacological and psychosocial treatment on remission and functional outcome in outpatients with schizophrenia. (n.d.). Retrieved August 13, 2017, from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022395613002811
Negative Symptom Assessment (NSA-16). (n.d.). Retrieved August 13, 2017, from https://eprovide.mapi-trust.org/instruments/negative-symptom-assessment
Velligan, D. I., & Alphs, L. D. (2014). Negative Symptoms in Schizophrenia: An Update on Identification and Treatment. Psychiatric Times, 31(11), 1-6.