October 10-World Mental Health Day
It just so happened that for many decades it was not possible to talk about the mentally ill, and therefore about psychiatrists accepted. The opinion was created that mental illnesses do not respond to effective treatment, lead to the destruction of the patient's personality, behavioral disorders. The closed nature of psychiatric hospitals and dispensaries gives rise to the most ridiculous rumors and prejudices against the mentally ill. Among the population, there is a perception of mental disorders as the consequence of "damage", witchcraft and incantations.
This, of course, is complete nonsense. Mental illnesses are quite widespread: the most common are neuroses and neurosis-like states that are not accompanied by behavioral disorders and with the preservation of a critical attitude to the disease. Many of these patients turn to doctors with various somatic complaints, and are treated for a long time and unsuccessfully, hiding the main symptoms of the disease: depressed mood, anxiety, melancholy, lack of pleasure from food, hobbies, works and others. Neurotic conditions are quite successfully treatable, most of the patients who are treated in the early stages of the disease and receive complex medication and psychotherapy treatment, recover. With late treatment, when neurotic disorders closely merge with the patient's personality, the lifestyle and system changes of course, there is a "departure into the disease" and the effectiveness of treatment is much lower.
All people are different, and only because of this there is a society, there are natural leaders and natural performers, alone people are extremely responsible and vindictive, others seek recognition and fame, while others, on the contrary, shun strangers. In some, these character traits are expressed moderately and do not interfere with them in ordinary life and only in extreme situations they can contribute to some painful manifestations, in others-personal characteristics can lead to social maladaptation. Most often, personality pathology most often needs psychiatric, psychological and psychotherapeutic help in adolescence, when the character is just being formed. With age, personal changes the features are somewhat smoothed out.
Among the mental disorders that occur in late life, one of the most common is the disease Alzheimer's. Until recently, various variants of "senile dementia" were considered incurable and progressive diseases that lead to insanity and death. In recent decades, the therapy of this group of diseases has developed a significant positive shift. Of course, the best results can be achieved in the early stages of the disease, when there is not yet pronounced decrease in intelligence. Such patients need long-term and quite expensive maintenance therapy, but this can significantly increase the life expectancy of these patients and improve its quality.
Epileptic disease is a special area of attention for both psychiatrists and neurologists. With proper treatment, in 2/3 of patients, seizures stop and recovery occurs, in the remaining patients, it is possible to achieve a significant reduction in seizures. Personality changes in patients with epilepsy occur depending on the frequency of seizures, so the correctness and regularity of treatment reduces the risk of developing significant mental disorders.
A large group of mental disorders – endogenous psychoses: schizophrenia and bipolar affective disorder disorder.The misconception of these diseases as fatally leading to pronounced personality changes, disability that is difficult to treat.
3/4 of patients with bipolar affective disorder are never hospitalized in psychiatric hospitals, 2/3 of patients with schizophrenia are hospitalized 1-2 times throughout their lives, while they do not lose their social status and differ little from mentally healthy people. Systematic dispensary monitoring allows you to identify exacerbations of the disease in the early stages, when the disease is not accompanied by behavioral disorders.
Of course, there are problems with such patients: this is the refusal of the patient and relatives from treatment, the lack of understanding patients with their own disease, the desire of relatives of patients is treated by various healers, psychics, etc.
Therefore, I would like to see the aura of false mystery around psychiatry dispelled: psychiatrists are the same doctors, and the mentally ill are the same patients as in other branches of medicine. The effectiveness of the treatment of most mental illnesses is comparable to the results of therapy for hypertension, hepatitis, diabetes, and others somatic diseases. In the 21st century, there should be no discrimination on the basis of disease – everyone understands this.
Head of the Organizational and Methodological Department
GUZ " Lipetsk Regional Psychoneurological Hospital»
Dmitrenkov S. I.
