Psychosocial aspects of personal reactions of schizophrenic patients to neuroleptic therapy

Major advances in the treatment of mental disorders have been achieved through the use of psychotropic drugs. Medicinal pathomorphosis, in addition to generally favorable changes in the clinical picture of mental illness, increased the degree of social adaptation of mentally ill patients. At the same time, the spread of psychotropic drugs caused the appearance of negative problems, among which the main one is the problem of side effects of psychopharmacotherapy. Difficult to tolerate side effects of antipsychotics lead to refusal to take them in 25-50% of patients. More than 50% of patients with schizophrenia express an indefinitely negative attitude towards psychotropic drugs. The negative attitude towards psychotropic drugs is associated, apparently, not only with their side effects, but also with a negative attitude towards psychiatry in general. At present, the mass media have become the basis for the formation of social trends and the collective unconscious, and in Russia over the past decade they have often contributed to the creation of a negative image of psychiatry. A study of 318 publications in the central and local press for 1989-1998, devoted to psychiatric issues, revealed that 75% of them relate to the negative aspects of the treatment of mentally ill patients.