Early Onset Schizophrenia Essay Paper

Posted: December 17th, 2022

Early Onset Schizophrenia Essay Paper

Assignment 1- Early Onset Schizophrenia-WK9AS1 Children and adolescents with schizophrenia have more difficulty functioning in academic or work settings, and significant impairment usually persists into adulthood. They may have speech or language disorders and in some cases borderline intellectual functioning. These individuals are more likely to complete suicide attempts or die from other accidental causes. Schizophrenia is characterized by positive and negative symptoms. Positive symptoms include hallucinations, delusions, and behavior disturbance. Negative symptoms include blunted affect and attention, apathy, and lack of motivation and social interest.Early Onset Schizophrenia Essay Paper.  In this Assignment, you compare treatment plans for adults diagnosed with schizophrenia with treatment plans for children and adolescents diagnosed with schizophrenia. You also consider the legal and ethical issues involved in medicating children diagnosed with schizophrenia. Learning Objectives Students will: • Compare evidence-based treatment plans for adults versus children and adolescents diagnosed with schizophrenia • Analyze legal and ethical issues surrounding the forceful administration of medication to children diagnosed with schizophrenia • Analyze the role of the PMHNP in addressing issues related to the forceful administration of medication to children diagnosed with schizophrenia To Prepare for this Assignment: • Review the Learning Resources concerning early-onset schizophrenia. The Assignment (2 pages): • Compare at least two evidence-based treatment plans for adults diagnosed with schizophrenia with evidence-based treatment plans for children and adolescents diagnosed with schizophrenia. • Explain the legal and ethical issues involved with forcing children diagnosed with schizophrenia to take medication for the disorder and how a PMHNP may address those issues. Early Onset Schizophrenia Essay Paper

Early onset schizophrenia

Introduction

Treatment and management of schizophrenia is a long term endeavor that focuses on symptoms management using psychosocial and psychotherapy approaches. To ensure that effective treatment is provided, there is need to incorporate patient-specific factors that include such that children and adults would be subjected to different treatment plans. In addition, there is a need to consider the legal and ethical implications of different treatment approaches (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). The present paper discusses the age-based considerations when providing treatment for schizophrenia as well as legal and ethical implications of forced treatment.

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Discussion

Compare at least two evidence-based treatment plans for adults diagnosed with schizophrenia with evidence-based treatment plans for children and adolescents diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Treatment of schizophrenia makes use of antipsychotic medication that is supported by psychotherapy among adult, children and adolescent patients. In all populations, the use of first generation antipsychotic medication is not common since it improves positive symptomatology but attracts concerns since it causes prolactin elevation, tardive dyskinesiaand extra-pyramidal symptoms as side effects. It is this concern that has elicited support for second generation antipsychotics since they alleviate both negative and positive symptoms, and present a lower risk of inducing tardive dyskinesia, prolactin elevation,and extra-pyramidal symptoms as side effects. Still, these medication have been linked with significant weight gain. The implication is that second generation antipsychotics (such as olanzapine, risperidoneand clozapine) are superior to first generation antipsychotics all adult and children populations (Sperry, 2016).Early Onset Schizophrenia Essay Paper

With regards to psychotherapeutic interventions, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is commonly applied among adults while cognitive enhancement therapy (CET) is applied among children and adolescents. The two therapies are applied as adjuncts to antipsychotic medication. CBT focuses on changing how adult patients behave and think, and how they deal with the triggers for the hallucinations and voices. CET teaches children and adolescents how to recognize social triggers and cues, while improving their capacity to organize their thoughts, memory and attention (Sperry, 2016). That is not to say that there are no similarities between the treatments for the two age groups. In fact, there are five similarities for CBT use in adult patients and CET use in children and adolescent patients. The first similarity is that therapy focuses on assuring the client. The second similarity is that therapy clarifies the diagnosis while explaining to the client what it entails in terms of what to expect from treatment. The third similarity is that therapy is recommended on the basis of anticipated side effects and how they will be managed or minimized. The final similarity is that treatment first resolves the immediate acute episode before shifting to preventing a relapse through continued vigilance (American Nurses Association, 2014).Early Onset Schizophrenia Essay Paper

Although CBT and CET share some similarities, there are unique dissimilarities that differentiate between adults on one side and children and adolescents on the other side. The first difference is that treatment for children and adolescents looks at their development stage so that that they are not generalized as a single population while adults are generalized as a single population. The second difference is that treatment for adults focuses on the patients and their family structures while treatment for children and adolescents focuses on the patients, their family structures and social groups that could include groups. This difference occurs because children with the condition typically experience development difficulties that should be addressed in their social environment to prevent intellectual impairment. The third difference is that treatment for adults simply focuses on symptoms management and social functioning, whereas treatment for children and adolescent goes a step further in facilitating development to support the child in transitioning from childhood to adolescents and into adulthood (Sadock, B., Sadock, V. & Ruiz, 2014; Sperry, 2016). As a result, there are similarities and differences between the among children and adolescents on one hand and adults on the other hand with regards totreatment of schizophrenia.Early Onset Schizophrenia Essay Paper

Explain the legal and ethical issues involved with forcing children diagnosed with schizophrenia to take medication for the disorder and how a PMHNP may address those issues.

There are legal and ethical issues associated with forcing children to receive treatment for schizophrenia. The legal issue is that the law allows for patients to be forced to receive treatment if the disorder is severe and requires immediate treatment, or if the patient presents an imminent danger to himself/herself or to others within the same community. Another legal justification occurs if the child is determined to be unable to make an autonomous decision because of an inability to communicate, reason, appreciate and understand. The PMHNP has legal justification to force treatment should any one of the two scenarios occur. While the law supports forced treatment in certain situations, there are ethical concerns. The first ethical concern is that forcing treatment violates the child’s autonomy. The second ethical issue is that forcing treatment disregards the child’s preferences and values. The third ethical issue is that the treatment is not guaranteed to address the disorder with the possibility that the condition could be worsened (American Psychiatric Association, 2013).Early Onset Schizophrenia Essay Paper

The identified issues can be addressed by identifying a priority list of the more important factors and how they should be addressed. The patient’s safety should be prioritized, with the treatment being forced if there is a high potential for the patient being harmed. However, the patient should be consulted at every step with a focus on alleviating his condition. This means that force should only be used if the patient is determined to require treatment and he or she refuses to voluntarily receive treatment (Miller & Hanson, 2016).

Conclusion

One must accept that although schizophrenia treatment focuses on symptoms management, environment control, effectiveness, preventing relapse, and rehabilitation, there is a need to consider age. That is because treatment is moderated by developmental stage, support structures, and development tasks. Still, it is important to note that when considering the possibility of forced treatment, the legalities and ethics of autonomy and need should be evaluated.

References

American Nurses Association (2014). Psychiatric-mental health nursing: scope and standards of practice (2^nded.). Washington, DC: Author.

American Psychiatric Association (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5^thed.). Washington, DC: Author.

Miller, D. & Hanson, A. (2016). Committed: the battle over involuntary psychiatric care. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Sadock, B. J., Sadock, V. A., & Ruiz, P. (2014). Kaplan &Sadock’s synopsis of psychiatry: behavioral sciences/clinical psychiatry (11^thed.). Philadelphia, PA: Wolters Kluwer.

Sperry, L. (2016). Handbook of diagnosis and treatment of DSM-5 personality disorders: assessment, case conceptualization, and treatment (3^rded.). New York, NY: Routledge.Early Onset Schizophrenia Essay Paper