Introduction to Psychiatric Disorders
A heterogeneous group of mental disorders, psychiatric disorders are unusual mental or behavioral patterns that cause disability to the individual. These disorders encompass a wide variety of conditions that affect the way one feels and thinks. They can also affect one's ability to get through day-to-day life.
They can be influenced by several different factors, including genetics, environment, daily habits, and biology. Five major psychiatric disorders are autism, attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, and schizophrenia. Signs and symptoms of psychiatric disorders include feeling sad or down, confused thinking, extreme mood changes of highs and lows, withdrawal from friends and activities, significant tiredness, low energy, problems sleeping, inability to cope with daily problems or stress, hallucinations, alcohol or drug use, changes in eating habits, sex drive changes, excessive anger, hostility or violence, suicidal thinking, etc. The symptoms can vary, depending on the disorder, circumstances, and other factors.
Palliative and End-of-life (EOL) Care
Palliative care, also called supportive care, is treatment, care, and support for people with a life-limiting illness. Palliative care involves the treatment of individuals who have a serious illness in which a cure is no longer possible. This also involves all dimensions of life, including symptom management, social, spiritual, and psychological needs. The purpose of palliative care is to assure the patient experience an optimal quality of life.
EOL care is a portion of palliative care that involves the treatment, care, and support for people who are nearing the end of their life. Although difficult to predict, end of life is caring for individuals who are in the last year of life, and for legal and health care purposes, typically the last six months of life. End-of-life care is focused on maintaining the quality of life and a major component of end-of-life care is the focus on allowing patients to die with dignity.
Life Care for Patients with Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a chronic and debilitating psychotic illness affecting 1% of the population. Patients with this disease represent a vulnerable and undertreated population who have been neglected. Patients with schizophrenia are about half as likely to access palliative care in the last six months of life. Besides, they may have a higher likelihood of spending extended time in a nursing home, receive less opioid analgesia, and are less likely to engage in advanced care planning.
Antipsychotic dosing may be much greater for schizophrenia than for treatment of agitation, delirium, or nausea. Antipsychotics show dose-dependent QT prolongation and resultant risk of torsade de points. Recurrent ECG monitoring is necessary in patients with estimated survival longer than a few months. Moreover, clinicians should be cautious about deprescribing antipsychotics as the stress of medical illness may worsen positive psychiatric symptoms. If a medical issue arises, preventing intake of the oral psychopharmacological regimen, psychiatric consultation should be considered.
Patients with schizophrenia are at risk for homelessness, hunger, and violence, which can be primary drivers in medical decision making. Unfortunately, finding safe and appropriate care settings can be challenging for terminally ill patients. Psychiatric group homes and inpatient psychiatric care settings may be poorly equipped to offer a sufficient end-of-life care environment. Conversely, nursing homes or hospices may be poorly addressed to uncontrolled psychiatric symptoms. Thus, patients with schizophrenia are at high risk for prolonged hospitalizations at the end of life.
People with psychiatric disorders are at risk of receiving poorer end-of-life care than other patients. They are often undertreated, avoid treatment, and are about half as likely to access palliative care. Although life care helps a lot for patients with psychiatric disorders, many problems still there. Under this situation, psychotropic drugs with high efficiency and safety are urgently needed. In terms of extensive experience in drug development, Creative Biolabs is dedicated to assisting our clients with psychotropic drug development. We have developed a range of psychiatric disease research tools to facilitate our customers' research and project development. Please contact us for more information and a detailed quote.
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