[ANON POST] Responding Well to Schizophrenia Medications/Symptom Intensity
Setting: New England, 2011-2012
Character: Is a 15/16 year-old male with early-onset schizophrenia, and ADD. Has recently been diagnosed with early-onset schizophrenia, and is presenting with positive symptoms (http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/schizophrenia/index.shtml) (link to the NIMH page for what distinguishes positive from negative symptoms).
Search Efforts: I've tried terms like "schizophrenia", "schizophrenia medication", and "responds well to"/"reponds well to medication" and many combinations of those together, but it hasn't yielded the kind of details that I'm looking for. I also tried searching "delusions" and "hallucinations", "frequency" and "intensity" for my second question, but couldn't find exactly what I was looking for in that regard either. I looked at the NIMH website, as well as a number of mental health/schizophrenia forums to look for first-hand accounts.
#1: Basically, my understanding is that people with positive schizophrenia symptoms have a tendency to respond to medication better than those with negative symptoms (please correct me if I'm wrong). But what constitutes as "reponding well"? How frequently might symptoms occur? At what intensity? Would any efforts to medicate the ADD interfere with that? I know that these answers might end up being broad because everyone responds to medication differently and everyone's individual symptoms may vary, but I'm looking for a picture of what would fall into the realm of realism.
#2: I think this might also be something that varies. Essentially, the character's primary, most noticeable symptom (prior to treatment and possibly after depending on the answer to #1) to be delusions (namely, paranoid ones). According to that NIMH article, delusions fall under the heading of positive symptoms. However, the article also says that hallucinations (particularly auditory ones) are very common. I just want confirmation, would it be realistic to say that the character doesn't really have a great deal of hallucinations, and that his biggest problem is the delusions?
Thanks for any help. I really want to make sure that I avoid falling into any overused tropes with this.
Character: Is a 15/16 year-old male with early-onset schizophrenia, and ADD. Has recently been diagnosed with early-onset schizophrenia, and is presenting with positive symptoms (http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/schizophrenia/index.shtml) (link to the NIMH page for what distinguishes positive from negative symptoms).
Search Efforts: I've tried terms like "schizophrenia", "schizophrenia medication", and "responds well to"/"reponds well to medication" and many combinations of those together, but it hasn't yielded the kind of details that I'm looking for. I also tried searching "delusions" and "hallucinations", "frequency" and "intensity" for my second question, but couldn't find exactly what I was looking for in that regard either. I looked at the NIMH website, as well as a number of mental health/schizophrenia forums to look for first-hand accounts.
#1: Basically, my understanding is that people with positive schizophrenia symptoms have a tendency to respond to medication better than those with negative symptoms (please correct me if I'm wrong). But what constitutes as "reponding well"? How frequently might symptoms occur? At what intensity? Would any efforts to medicate the ADD interfere with that? I know that these answers might end up being broad because everyone responds to medication differently and everyone's individual symptoms may vary, but I'm looking for a picture of what would fall into the realm of realism.
#2: I think this might also be something that varies. Essentially, the character's primary, most noticeable symptom (prior to treatment and possibly after depending on the answer to #1) to be delusions (namely, paranoid ones). According to that NIMH article, delusions fall under the heading of positive symptoms. However, the article also says that hallucinations (particularly auditory ones) are very common. I just want confirmation, would it be realistic to say that the character doesn't really have a great deal of hallucinations, and that his biggest problem is the delusions?
Thanks for any help. I really want to make sure that I avoid falling into any overused tropes with this.