Signs of schizophrenia in a chronic alcoholic. Alcohol addiction aggravated by schizophrenia. Alcohol-induced schizophrenia

Alcoholic schizophrenia is just a term. There is no disease as such. Intoxication with alcohol or drugs provokes the onset of schizophrenia. Conversely, schizophrenia is provoked by alcohol consumption large quantities. Let's try to understand this issue.

Long-term and constant drinking of alcoholic beverages leads to alcoholic psychosis.

Types of diseases

The disease manifests itself in three types:

1. Delirium tremens, or alcoholic delirium. Popularly known as a squirrel. After an abrupt cessation of long-term drunkenness, a person becomes lost in space. He doesn’t understand what time of day, where he is and what’s wrong with him. He sees living and nonliving creatures: devils, animals, insects, and other objects. It seems to a person that they threaten his life.
2. Hallucinosis. Appears during prolonged drinking. A person who is drinking hears voices that frighten them and accuse them of something. Hallucinations usually come in the form of threats. Patients are sure that everyone around them also hears these sounds.
3. Alcoholic paranoid, or delusional psychosis with prolonged alcoholism. Expressed in anxiety and constant feeling fear. The personality becomes impulsive and agitated.

Confusion often occurs. This psychosis is confused with the manifesto (the first psychosis in schizophrenia).

Schizophrenia itself is expressed by a slightly different set of symptoms:

1. A person’s emotions are inadequate to the current situation;
2. Thinking disorder. Thoughts “stop” or come in an “influx”;
3. Autism may be present.

Violation of thought processes, speech, manifestation inappropriate behavior– the main symptoms of alcoholic schizophrenia. In this case, only a psychiatrist will be able to understand the forms of psychosis through direct contact with the patient and conduct a full diagnosis of schizophrenia. With severe changes in the nervous system and internal organs patients are placed in psychiatric institutions because they become dangerous to society and commit their actions contrary to all the rules.

These two diseases go next to each other. And similar in general outline, according to symptoms. Therefore, going to medical institutions in any case becomes necessary. Therefore, we will consider alcoholic schizophrenia in a complex manner.

Manifestations and nature of alcoholic schizophrenia

In the first phase, the following appear:

• sleep dysfunction and complete insomnia;
• depression;
• temperature increase;
• depression and anxiety;
• aggression and irritability.

In the second phase, hallucinations occur.

Trembling of the limbs is constant. Delusions and hallucinations become habitual for the patient. But the appearance of a dual form of orientation, when a neighbor can be both a kind Uncle Vanya and an evil alien at the same time, should be very alarming. This stage is also characterized frequent repetition the same words and phrases that have nothing to do with the current situation.

Such severe cases You can see how schizophrenic men “take out the gag” from their mouths and wave away apparent objects and animals. They fight against seemingly evil characters and run long distances to escape “persecution.” Thus, they are trying to “save” themselves. These are signs of significant distress brain activity can last a week or even a month. Less commonly, hallucinatory-delusional symptoms last up to six months. If schizophrenia on the background of alcoholism has such a protracted course, the patient’s condition is classified as extremely serious.

Schizophrenia and alcohol addiction often recur. This highest point severe intoxication of the body. If no action is taken, it will lead to suicide. Such types become dangerous to society. Low level adaptation in society and the risk of suicide makes them so.

Drugs + schizophrenia

Smoking + schizophrenia

Smoking may contribute to the development of schizophrenia

Nicotine enhances the functioning of brain cells in patients. But their addiction to cigarettes is three times higher than that of healthy people. Patients are attracted and attracted by smoking, but it weakens the effect of antipsychotropic drugs and such people need a higher dose of medication. They find it very difficult to quit smoking and it causes worsening psychotic symptoms. During the period of smoking cessation, the use of nicotine replacement drugs is recommended. Smoking and schizophrenia combine to create lethal conditions for brain activity.

The bad habits of schizophrenics in the form of abuse of alcohol, drugs, and smoking lead to irreversible processes in the brain and in the body as a whole.

Important! If on early stages detect the disease and begin drug treatment for schizophrenia, the prospects for recovery become greater.

Treatment

An important factor in the diagnosis of schizophrenia and alcoholism is an objective assessment of the patient’s mental and neurological well-being. Timely initiation of treatment will bring positive results. Neuroleptics will control the processes of hallucinations. Reduce human thinking disorder. Psychosocial therapy will help return the patient to the proper standard of living.

Treatment of drug addiction, alcoholism, and tobacco smoking requires an integrated approach. Today, personal programs and recovery plans are used for each patient separately.

Promising therapies include:

• reception medicines, vitamins;
• herbal medicine;
• massage;
• physical exercise;
• psychotherapy;
• coding.

Most patients improve general state thanks to the use of progressive treatments. The presence of addictions in a patient with schizophrenia requires urgent outside intervention and a special approach, taking into account all the features of the course of the disease as a whole.

IN official medicine There is no such disease or diagnosis as alcoholic schizophrenia. This is just a colloquial term and is used not only ordinary people, but also doctors. Both narcologists and psychiatrists constantly emphasize the relationship between the manifestations of schizophrenia and alcohol abuse. At the same time, just as alcohol provokes the onset of the disease, the disorder itself can cause an irresistible craving for alcohol.

Alcoholic schizophrenia is a term adopted to designate a combination of endogenous mental disorder and addiction to alcohol.

The causes of schizophrenia, both in a non-drinker and in the context of alcohol consumption, are as follows:

• hereditary predisposition;
• developmental features in the prenatal period and birth injuries;
• provoking social factors;
• childhood psychological trauma;
• brain injury and infection;
• severe stress.

All these factors become aggravated when drinking alcohol and lead to the onset of the disease.

Not every drinking man falls ill with schizophrenia, just as not every person suffering from it reaches out to alcohol. Despite the fact that the relationship between alcohol and this disorder has been established, today it is impossible to give a clear answer as to why one person’s addiction to alcohol leads to illness, while another does not.

Important! The systematic consumption of alcoholic beverages leads to the appearance of signs of the disease and its development, that is, a person who drinks daily runs a much greater risk than someone who accidentally drinks too much, for example, on holidays.

Development of the disease

From the point of view of neurobiology, alcoholic schizophrenia is just a consequence of disturbances in the chain of impulses in the brain, during the transmission and processing of information coming from the surrounding reality.

That is, the appearance of schizophrenia is a consequence of a violation of the interaction of nerve cells, but the cause of this disorder is alcohol abuse. And vice versa, gene mutation, as a result of which processes in nervous cellular activity are initially disrupted, leads to alcoholism.

Disturbances in the chain of impulses that occur in the brain lead to:

• injuries;
• stress;
• social conditions and much more.

After a failure in the perception and analysis of reality has occurred, which is the cause of the triggering of schizophrenia, it develops and the initial signs appear.

Neuroscientists from the department of the University of Chicago, who study the relationship between mental disorders and alcohol, as well as the study of schizophrenia, have revealed that protein components break down in the human brain, which is the beginning of the development of the disease.

When the destruction of protein mass becomes critical, the first symptoms of schizophrenia appear:

• memory disturbances;
• hallucinations;
• changes in intelligence;
• difficulty in any physiological abilities.

With primary schizophrenia and alcoholism, as its consequence, a person is aware of his condition and intuitively tries to compensate for it with neurostimulants, the most accessible of which is alcohol.

Having started drinking alcohol, the patient becomes an alcoholic very quickly, since the lack of the required amount of protein in the brain tissue does not allow him to feel a “sense of proportion.” Such people not only drink uncontrollably, but are also unable to feel full when eating, tired when playing sports, and much more. Unlike alcohol, other areas are controlled by external restrictions - portion size or volume of prepared food, time allocated for sports activities, and so on.

According to the observations of psychiatrists and narcologists, the most important thing for mental disorders is not to drink alcohol. It is much more difficult to treat developing alcoholic schizophrenia against the background of an existing personality disorder than in cases where alcohol is the cause of the disease.

Achievements of neurobiology in the study of alcoholic schizophrenia are taken into account by both medicine and the pharmacological industry. The most modern drugs for the treatment of this disorder are focused on A complex approach– both for the treatment of psychosis itself and for the restoration of protein compounds in the brain.

Fact! In a study of the likelihood of hereditary transmission of schizophrenia and alcoholism at the University of Chicago, 600 volunteers, their relatives and children were involved. All tests were done on the participants, stem cell fluid was taken, and the brain was examined using MRI. The most global research project is still ongoing. However, its very first results and discoveries are already being used by specialists to produce drugs with new formulas for the treatment of mental illness.

Clinical symptoms

The clinical picture of such a relationship as schizophrenia and alcohol has been fully identified and studied. The course of this disease is characterized by the following symptoms:

• implicit affective disorders nervous activity;
• psychopathic-like periods, but not fits or seizures;
• neurosis-like behavioral disorders;
• absence of catatonic syndrome;
• prolonged internal muscle tension;
• emotional state of depression, growing and turning into depression;
• anxiety, pre-paranoia, including sleep disturbances, spontaneous sweating and panic attacks;
• inadequate perception of the surrounding reality;
• hallucinations, both auditory and visual;
• noticeable disturbance of the thought process.

The main difference between alcoholic schizophrenia and the consequences of intoxication of the body with alcohol is that the symptoms are most clearly manifested in a sober state, while in the sufferer ordinary alcoholism it occurs during the consumption of alcoholic beverages.

Urgent medical care should be called when symptoms such as:

• impaired consciousness, disorientation in space and time (delirium);
• hallucinations, lack of understanding that hallucination is occurring (acute hallucinosis);
• sudden paranoid behavior with concomitant loss of psychomotor skills and any knowledge (temporary endomorphic psychosis).

Ignoring these signs may have sad consequences, both for the patient himself and for other people.

Important! A person with alcoholic schizophrenia is very dangerous to his loved ones. In a state of acute hallucinosis, there is no healthy man may see relatives as a threat or danger to themselves or to the whole world. It is simply impossible to predict the actions of such a patient.

About 10 years ago, treatment for alcoholic schizophrenia was considered ineffective. Patients had to be isolated, doctors were constantly faced with the return and even exacerbation of the disease, the symptoms progressed despite the absence of alcohol and the presence of drug therapy.

Some world-famous psychiatrists believed that such a combination as alcoholism and schizophrenia could not be treated. However, with the development of sciences studying the activity of the brain, the situation has changed radically, and today the disease is successfully corrected and treated. The most important thing when dealing with this disorder is an integrated approach, because treating schizophrenia without treating alcoholism and vice versa will not be successful.

As medical supplies means are applied latest generation aimed at restoring lost connections between nerve cells and taking into account the lack of protein in the brain.

In general, therapy includes the following groups of drugs:

• neuroleptics, or antipsychotics, of the latest generation;
• nootropics or neurometabolic stimulants;
• psychotropic drugs, that is, tranquilizers;
• protein-based immunomodulators;
• vitamins and fatty acids (eg Omega-6).

Neuroleptic drugs suppress symptoms, stop destruction cell nuclei V nerve tissues, normalize the functionality of the autonomic sections, thereby relieving the state of tension and stopping the development of psychoses.

Tranquilizers cope with depression, anxiety, paranoia and others similar conditions, including sleep disorders and some physiological symptoms, for example, tremor.

Immunomodulators are the basis of complex drug therapy, on the one hand, they eliminate intoxication of the body, and on the other, they promote the regeneration of protein cells in the brain.

Vitamins and compounds fatty acids deliver the complex nutrients into the body. They are selected individually, based on the patient’s test results. The form of these medications also depends on the patient’s condition—in particularly critical situations, injections are prescribed.

In addition to medications, very important part Treatment includes psychotherapy, observation by a narcologist, passing all tests prescribed by a doctor and, if necessary, drip removal of toxins from the blood.

Schizophrenia and alcoholism are 2 serious diseases that can be combined in one person and have unforeseen consequences, so treatment should be carried out in 2 directions. Lack of help from a narcologist or psychiatrist will lead to irreversible changes in personality and permanent, chronic form mental disorders. A patient with alcoholic schizophrenia must be under the supervision of these specialists throughout his life.

Important! In the treatment of alcoholic schizophrenia, group therapeutic sessions are not used, physical exercise and the use of sedatives.

Schizophrenia and alcoholism are comorbid diseases, that is, one often provokes the other. Moreover, each of these diseases has a serious Negative influence on a person’s personality, gradually leading him to final degradation and inadequacy. There is also evidence that alcohol consumption itself can trigger the onset of schizophrenia or its exacerbation if the diagnosis has already been made.

Of course, a lot depends on the state of the sick person’s body. But there are a number of general points that need to be remembered both by the patients themselves and by those people who are not averse to drinking for any reason or without it.

Various studies show that such a relationship can be both direct and “inverse”. Drinking alcohol can provoke the development of the disease if a person is initially predisposed to this, and schizophrenia itself increases the craving for alcoholic beverages. Let's take a closer look at both options.

Development of the disease due to alcohol intoxication

Schizophrenia is considered hereditary disease which is passed on genetically. For the development of this mental illness Several genes respond at once, but in many cases they do not manifest themselves in any way until the organism finds itself in an extreme situation for it.

Long drinking bout, chronic poisoning alcohol in brain cells is exactly the “extreme” that can trigger the development of schizophrenia due to alcoholism in a person initially predisposed to it.

How does alcohol affect the course of schizophrenia?

Statistics say that more than 33% of patients with schizophrenia have abused alcohol at various points in their lives. These and other research data allowed scientists to conclude that this mental disorder itself causes cravings for alcohol.

Drinking alcohol reduces the level of anxiety characteristic of schizophrenia. Feeling this, the patient more and more often applies himself to the bottle, which seems to alleviate the course of his illness. However, over time, a persistent dependence forms and alcoholism develops. And the symptoms and signs of schizophrenia (delusions, hallucinations) become more vivid and intense, psychosis may develop, and the quantity and quality of remissions decreases. Schizophrenia in alcoholics often takes a malignant course, leading to rapid degradation of the patient and destruction of his personality.

The influence of alcohol on the course of schizophrenia. Can alcohol be used to alleviate the symptoms of schizophrenia? How dangerous withdrawal syndrome(hangover) in schizophrenia.

The first signs of alcoholic schizophrenia

Strictly speaking, there is no diagnosis of “alcoholic schizophrenia” in medicine and it is not given to patients, but in many articles and books one can find this term, denoting a combination of alcoholism and schizophrenia in an individual patient.

The first signs of alcoholic schizophrenia in men and women include:

1. Persistent sleep disturbances (insomnia, interrupted sleep, does not bring a feeling of rest, nightmares).
2. Increased temperature without signs of inflammation.
3. Feelings of anxiety and depression, which can only be relieved by another dose of alcohol.
4. Development of depression and apathy towards everything around you.
5. Irritability, attacks of aggression “out of the blue.”

Later the process takes on more serious forms. Hallucinations, delusions, and other specific symptoms intensify.

By the way: Sometimes, with prolonged alcohol abuse, something vaguely reminiscent of spontaneous remission occurs in patients with schizophrenia. At the same time, the symptoms of the disease are smoothed out, the patient becomes more sociable, and the manifestations of autism decrease. However, in no case can this process be considered “recovery”, because not a single endogenous disease can be cured large doses alcohol, and besides, against the background of alcoholism, even a healthy person quickly loses his human appearance, and even more so a schizophrenic.

Main symptoms of the disease

Along with increasing hallucinations and delusions, schizophrenia and alcohol together produce many other signs and symptoms that are difficult for the patient.

1. The mania for persecution intensifies; the mentally ill may try to run away from invisible “enemies” or fight off with anything that comes to hand.
2. There is a persistent tremor of the limbs, typical of alcoholics.
3. There is a constant repetition of the same words and phrases that are not related to the surrounding reality.
4. Depressive thoughts increase, and suicide attempts may occur.
5. The patient sometimes falls into complete stupor, in which he can remain for quite a long time.
6. A “split personality” is possible, when a person simultaneously tries to be good and kind, but immediately becomes aggressive and irritable.
7. Periods of excitement are often followed by attacks of complete apathy.
8. There is complete or partial memory loss.
9. Thought processes are disrupted, the patient formulates his desires and thoughts very poorly and for a long time.

Symptoms of schizophrenia are almost always significantly worse with alcohol dependence. How quickly this happens and to what degree of severity the disease can reach is determined by the form of schizophrenia itself, the characteristics of the patient’s body and, in some way, the amount of alcohol that he usually drinks.

Schizophrenia and drugs

If alcoholic schizophrenia is more severe than normal schizophrenia, then the combination of the disease and drugs can be fatal for the sick person.

Drugs with a psychedelic effect (LSD, spice, amphetamine, etc.) can easily provoke the onset of schizophrenia in a healthy person if his genes already contain a predisposition to this disease.

If the diagnosis has already been made, but the patient continues to use psychoactive substances, then the prognosis is extremely unfavorable. The processes of destruction of brain cells, as well as personality degradation under the influence of drugs, occur much faster. There is a high risk of psychosis, which is much more severe than without taking narcotic substances.

Many schizophrenics under the influence of drugs become socially dangerous. They are capable of killing or maiming others without experiencing any remorse (even after recovering from drug intoxication). Another danger is the possibility of suicide of a patient who, in such a state, may imagine numerous dangers, enemies, or vice versa - instead of a balcony on the 15th floor, a person can see a green lawn and strive to get to it.

Schizophrenia and smoking

Schizophrenics are believed to be more susceptible nicotine addiction than healthy people. Some studies suggest that more than 90% of men suffering from this disease also experience nicotine addiction.

As for the “interaction” between smoking and disease, there is still no clear opinion on this topic among scientists and doctors. Oddly enough, in schizophrenia, smoking can be both a benefit and mortal danger, and how this combination will end is quite difficult to predict in each specific case.

On the one hand, the process of smoking helps the patient cope with increased anxiety, typical in schizophrenia. Nicotine is able to partially eliminate cognitive impairment in the disease, improve the patient’s memory and thinking, enhancing the functions of his brain cells.

And at the same time, nicotine can reduce the effectiveness of many medications used to treat schizophrenia, which forces doctors to prescribe more high doses drugs. Such patients are threatened respiratory diseases And cardiovascular diseases which are considered the most common reasons death in people with schizophrenia. The forecast for diabetes mellitus, since smoking affects insulin resistance.

By the way: Some doctors with extensive experience note that cases of schizophrenics are extremely rare. oncological diseases due to smoking, including lung cancer. This may be explained by the fact that mentally ill people do not live as long as healthy people, so many diseases simply do not have time to develop.

How are addictions treated in schizophrenia?

A mentally ill person is not always able to give up bad habits on his own. Sometimes he succeeds, but in general, patients with schizophrenia experience a decrease or complete absence willpower and the ability to endure long-term psychological discomfort, which inevitably arises when trying to quit smoking or drinking (not to mention drugs, even mild ones).

For alcoholism and drug addiction The first and main measure in treatment will be detoxification of the body - removal of toxic substances from the patient’s body. It is important to remember that in case of schizophrenia, attempts to “detoxify” at home are strictly prohibited - offers of such services can now be found in any newspaper or on advertising sites. Even a completely healthy person during this period should be under medical supervision, but in a schizophrenic, the use of certain drugs and the very fact of interrupting the binge can cause a sharp and severe exacerbation of the symptoms of the disease, up to the development of psychosis.

After the detoxification stage, the main treatment begins with the use of conventional drugs for schizophrenia - antipsychotics, antipsychotics, antidepressants, and so on. The dose and regimen are calculated by the doctor. It is also possible to prescribe vitamins, physical therapy, and work with a psychotherapist.

Regarding addiction treatment after withdrawal acute symptoms schizophrenia, this process is usually quite complex. For example, coding for alcoholism is unlikely to be effective due to the fact that mentally ill people often lose the ability to self-control and are difficult to suggest from other people. And the introduction of drugs incompatible with alcohol into the body can be extremely dangerous due to the fact that during an exacerbation of the underlying disease the patient may experience irresistible craving to alcoholic drinks, which at some point cannot be overcome - and this can end very badly.

Long-term psychotherapy may be the best way to combat harmful addictions. In both healthy and sick people, the cause of craving for alcohol and drugs is most often increased level anxiety, which can be relieved by working with a competent psychotherapist. The main thing is to find a specialist who knows how to interact with mentally ill patients, knows the peculiarities of their thinking and ways of influencing the specifically altered consciousness of a patient with schizophrenia.

Conclusion

Any pathological dependence in schizophrenia, it poses a danger to the patient and can aggravate the course of the disease. Unfortunately, science does not know " magic pill”, which can instantly save a patient from drug addiction or alcoholism. But long work with specialists, trusting the doctor and carefully taking prescribed medications will help the patient cope with dangerous habits and the underlying disease in order to return to a normal (or almost normal) life.

One of the paradoxes of psychiatry is the need to differentiate what cannot be separated. It is believed that approximately 40% of schizophrenics suffer from alcoholism. Most likely, the figure is so low because another forty percent skillfully hide it, or the stages of alcoholism are bizarrely confused with episodes, or alcohol affects others differently than it does on other citizens. Even if one of the diagnoses in the ICD 10 F20 block is given to a woman who cannot tolerate alcohol, then we will find it somewhere. Maybe someone in the family drinks, or maybe their parents drank excessively. The ghost of alcohol somehow haunts the wards of psychiatric hospitals.

When diagnosing, it is necessary to separate alcoholic delirium from schizophrenic. There is no need to think that the manifestations of delirium themselves have any difference. Everything is about the same... But an alcoholic needs a treatment regimen that provides for the presence of withdrawal syndrome and a high risk that he will someday continue to drink alcohol. But all this should not be applied to a non-drinking schizophrenic. Although, of course, I would like to look for non-drinkers... There are such people, but they are very few.

Schizophrenia may cause alcoholism, but not vice versa

Alcoholic schizophrenia has no symptoms due to its absence, but the symptoms are always traced in alcoholics.

Schizophrenia and alcohol are linked due to many factors. One of them is that alcohol is a powerful tool effects on the psyche. It can be antidepressant and psychostimulant in nature. However, the effects of alcohol occur in different ways. It may help, it may make it worse. negative symptoms. And, of course, the impact will be complex - on organs, on nervous system, on the psyche.

For schizophrenics, alcohol becomes a friend because it relaxes and allows the mind to rush through cognitive shifts as much as it wants. If you drink too much, a person will pass out, as they call it. In this way, the consciousness will be saved from the overload that uncontrolled mental activity promises it.

What's happened? Have we already started promoting alcoholism? No, we haven’t started... 80% of modern psychiatry is based on prescribing certain substances to patients and performing procedures on them. Alcohol is also a substance. From the point of view that all this is some kind of chemical elements, formulas - there is no fundamental difference. The drugs used in modern psychiatry also give side effects. However, they can either reduce mental activity or increase it within the framework of a therapeutic regimen. Alcohol acts like a sledgehammer, and even in the hands of a hammerman.

If you make a huge list of everything that alcohol has ever caused, then its beneficial effect will immediately pale in comparison to its destructive one. In our topic, alcohol most often causes these consequences.

Schizophrenia and alcohol, what will happen?

It can be said with a probability of more than 90% that if a person with schizoaffective disorder with a predominant manic type gets drunk during the period of remission, he will provoke a new attack. No, not 90%. 100% confidence. This is what will happen. Only 10% of hope remains that the condition will not reach the level of acute and severe manifestation of symptoms. The risk is so great that there is almost absolute certainty.

Don't believe anyone who says a glass of alcohol heals the soul

Other types of disorders are also not something that goes well with alcohol. But sometimes it's much more tricky. Many have once heard that a glass of vodka can cure the soul. If people experienced suffering after taking it, they wouldn’t drink. They feel relieved. However, this is an impact that comes at a cost. Even ordinary money will have to be spent. Liquor prices in modern Russia have increased so much that many antidepressants are already cheaper. The second cost is that, contrary to popular belief, modern antidepressants are not addictive, it is easy to refuse, and continue taking them as needed. But giving up alcohol, which also plays the role of an antidepressant, will be not only difficult, but almost impossible.

Alcohol can help a person with paranoid schizophrenia. But taking it regularly will lead to a condition where not a single professor differentiates the type of delirium: alcoholic or something else.

• I look at Petrovich, and devils are running all over him... Well, what can I say? Petrovich finished his drink, but they told him, warned him that he needed to know when to stop.

Here's a joke. During the years of perestroika in the USSR, now forgotten, a fashion arose to assert that alcohol in moderate doses is good and healthy. Even drug experts on color TV said so. We will not argue or agree. We know for sure that anyone can know when to stop, but not a schizophrenic. The maximum that our hero is capable of is some of his own special techniques.

An amazing case. The patient told the psychotherapist that he was very dexterous and could control himself. How do you think? One day he realized that that was it. Carries him. He came to the bank drunk and wrote a statement that he had lost his bank card. She was immediately blocked. He understood perfectly well that he would spend everything, that he did not understand anything. This was the last chance to save money. They unblocked it for two whole days, and during this time he managed to sober up. How can you not respect such a person? A real hero...

Chronic alcoholism, of course, leads to nervous disorders

But jokes are jokes, and what happens during the production of a cocktail is alcohol and mental disorder such that in the description it would be a mixture of the genres of dystopia and thriller with a criminal twist.

Occupation: poet; diagnosis - "alcoholic schizophrenia"

Alcoholic schizophrenia was such only in the time of Eugen Bleuler. He described the delirium of alcoholism as one of the schizophrenias, and the term itself had plural. If we assume, we will not say, but we can assume, if very carefully, that people drink alcohol because they suffer from a mental disorder, then a lot will change in standard drug treatment.

It is generally accepted that the poet Bezdomny from the novel “The Master and Margarita” was misdiagnosed. He supposedly actually saw Woland, so he wasn’t really crazy. Excuse me, how is this so? Did you see Woland, but wasn’t he crazy? Was, was... And remember what the doctor said? “Schizophrenia, one must assume, and then there’s also alcoholism.” Two main characters in psychiatric issues are mentioned here. There is another one - drugs. All three, but varying degrees, concerned Mikhail Bulgakov himself. The main action of the novel takes place in psychic reality. This was wonderfully reflected in the film by Vladimir Bortko. Margarita simply poisoned herself in her apartment, and the Master died in the hospital. However, in psychological reality, they saw, heard, and communicated. All this happened in another world, and it came into contact with ordinary Moscow in 1934 to the extent that the Master and the poet with the pseudonym Bezdomny met in psychiatric clinic.

If anyone needs signs of schizophrenia in a man due to alcoholism, then read the chapters that describe the hospitalization and treatment of the poet Bezdomny. Only with an amendment... There is no schizophrenia due to alcoholism. There is schizophrenia and alcoholism due to it. One can argue with this. The author of these lines will be glad if someone challenges this statement.

Bulgakov answered a question that concerned him extremely acutely. In many ways, he fit the role of “enemy of the people.” However, they stubbornly did not take him. The solution to the riddle is very simple. He would have ended up in the NKVD even after the first production of “Days of the Turbins”. However, Communist Party functionaries treated intelligent personnel with care. The question about Bulgakov was considered and very quickly they learned that he was registered in a psychiatric clinic. The main cause was drug addiction, and the signs of schizophrenia in those days were not very clearly identified in such cases. The diagnoses would seem either too bizarre or too general to modern psychiatrists. The party and its punishing sword in the form of the OGPU-NKVD tried not to touch the sick. Of course, they also would not have been forgiven for any obvious anti-Soviet behavior, but Bulgakov did not have it. Therefore, they waved a hand at him as if he were sick. He was afraid to the last, wrote letters to Stalin. Before his death, he relapsed once again and died in a state of a mixture of a whole complex of syndromes, which were also complicated by morphine.

Woland and his retinue from the novel represent a complex of drugs and schizophrenia. They received personal expression in the form literary hero. This is not the devil in the literal sense, but one of its forms. So the symptoms of schizophrenia against the background of alcoholism are quite mystical. Just don’t expect much charm here. Read more about Bulgakov. On the one hand, his illness even saved him. On the other hand, life turned into hell.

The behavior of drunk people is often inappropriate

For scientific purposes only

For proposing such experiments, of course, you need to be hit on the head. But we are people of science. We take a bottle of vodka and drink. From one of us " delirium tremens"will not happen, but a short excursion into what is happening in inner world we will get sick.

1. Disjointed thinking. Try reading a related speech or writing an article while drunk. Maybe something will work out. But we will see how the continuous flow splits.
2. Try to make a decision. Most likely, there will be several ideas in your mind - it is difficult to understand which one is better. They often act on a whim, as people say “it just happened.”
3. Try to imagine. Remember some event from your past and relive it, but changing the plot in some direction that seems better. And you yourself will not notice how you find yourself in a oneiric state. Psychological theater...

In the final stages of alcoholics, if delirium occurs, everything is the same, but drinking is no longer necessary for symptoms to occur. You cannot approach the question as if “alcoholic schizophrenia” has symptoms and signs only when it reaches the level of delirium. Just intoxication, but from a serious dose it contains these very symptoms and signs.

Schizophrenia in alcoholics or alcoholism in schizophrenics?

It is impossible to remove one head, drink, wonder, and then remove the one that was at the moment of intoxication and return the real one. Let's say that in a state of intoxication a person enthusiastically spins some idea. Very often, drunk men tell each other about how they served in the army. All these stories, everything absolutely, embellish reality or change it in some direction. Some people have a stream of obvious fantasy. The speech of a drunk may not differ at all from delirium. Of course this is not paraphrenic delirium, like the syndrome paranoid schizophrenia, and the same thing, but caused by intoxication. If it occurs regularly, then the likelihood that cognitive impairment will occur becomes increasingly higher, and as a consequence, delirium as a sign of a mental disorder.

All alcoholics suffer from a mental disorder to some extent. Already for the reason that she becomes a “witness” of how the processes associated with the defect occurred.

Alcohol paranoia is very often associated with jealousy. This is a stable complex of nonsense, which does not have fantastic plots, but is also not connected with reality. By for unknown reasons the patient is usually depicted as a man with a paranoid or epileptoid character accentuation. Everything about character is correct, but this happens to both men and women. The word “alcoholic” should also rather be sent somewhere in the area of ​​the patient’s personal characteristics, rather than his disorder. Well, if anything, the signs of schizophrenia in a male alcoholic are also no different from those that occur in female alcoholics.

Alcoholics are prone to paranoia

The fact is that alcoholism stages II and III, as well as schizophrenia in all types, very often provoke sexual dysfunction. Not erectile, but sexual, which also includes a decrease in libido, loss of the ability to enjoy sex, and the like. Of course, people feel this quite acutely. And the less chance they have of sex, the higher the degree of unhealthy jealousy. Usually, jealous people do not bring any problems to the imaginary sexual partner of their “halves”, but pour out their anger on them. This is due to the fact that the wife or husband becomes images of loss, symbolizing sexual intimacy, which is impossible or does not bring joy.

Alcoholic schizophrenia is a generally accepted term, but there is no disease as such. Alcohol abuse can lead to various mental disorders, including becoming a provocateur of schizophrenia in the presence of certain factors, for example, schizoid traits character. Also, against the background of schizophrenia, cases of diagnosis of alcoholism are not uncommon; against the background of their illness, patients withdraw into themselves along with long-term binges. Both the first category of people and the second require immediate medical and psychological assistance.

Alcoholism is an age-old problem

The fight against alcohol addiction has been going on for more than one millennium. Already in the 18th century, the fight against drunkenness began at the state level, since already at that time destructive phenomena from this addiction were noted. So, Peter I in Russian Empire social reforms were carried out, as a result of which, people with alcoholism were hung around their necks with a seven-kilogram medal “For drunkenness.” The “award ceremony” was held at the police station, and it was impossible to remove the medal.

Today, the problem of alcoholism is a national threat to society and specialists are fighting it different areas: medicine, sociology, law enforcement and executive agencies. Alcoholism is a disease that requires specialized treatment, otherwise development mental disorders inevitably.

Mental disorders in alcoholism

The disease has aggravating consequences, which in their manifestations are similar to schizophrenia, as a result of which schizophrenia is confused with alcoholism. Long-term binge drinking can lead to the following syndromes:

As a rule, it is delusional psychosis that is confused with the manifest period in schizophrenia, but treatment for these two pathologies is radically different.

Signs of schizophrenia

The disease may manifest itself various symptoms, it all depends on the form of schizophrenia. As a rule, generalized signs that appear on initial stage diseases are:

Without proper treatment, all these signs lead to a personality defect.

Alcoholism against the background of schizophrenia

When the patient becomes aware of his illness, there are often cases of his infatuation alcoholic drinks and narcotic substances. In these intoxicating drugs, he tries to eliminate his anxieties and depressed, depressive state, not realizing that he is driving himself even further into a hopeless situation. In such situations, the patient needs the help of specialists; he will not be able to get out of the vicious circle of addiction on his own, since strong-willed qualities impaired against the background of schizophrenia.

According to statistics, about 10% of people with schizophrenia have alcohol dependence. Aggravation of the disease by alcohol leads to irreversible physiological changes brain structures. Against the background of alcohol, the patient’s feelings of anxiety and fear are partially dulled, but in a state of euphoria, delusional ideas and hallucinosis become pronounced. As a rule, schizophrenics under the influence of alcohol are more aggressive, it is observed increased excitability And sexual attraction, inherent foolishness.

Affective disorders quickly set in, speech is impaired, memory lapses are observed, patients commit rash acts and ignore hygiene procedures.

Treatment of schizophrenia against the background of alcoholism is difficult. Initially, it is necessary to remove the patient from the binge stage, and accordingly cleanse the body of toxins. After which the complex is prescribed medications, which are based on:

Together with drug treatment consultations with a narcologist, psychotherapy and physiotherapeutic procedures are prescribed.

Neuroleptics help suppress the schizophrenic episode and psychosis associated with alcohol, and also regulate mental stress. Thanks to tranquilizers it is possible to cope with depressive states, fears, anxiety. In addition, they improve sleep and minimize limb tremors. Immunomodulators help increase protective functions the body, neutralize toxins caused by alcohol intake, a vitamin complex also has a similar effect.

Schizophrenia - serious pathological condition associated with a mental disorder requiring constant monitoring medical personnel And therapeutic methods. The condition is aggravated by alcohol or drugs. The patient should be protected from the possibility of taking alcohol, since its uncontrolled use leads to irreversible personality changes and the onset of mental defect. Treatment should be carried out comprehensively using both medications and psychotherapy with systematic monitoring by a narcologist and psychotherapist.

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