Problem
Case description, Mona - neuroleptics
For people with recurrent psychoses, like Mona who is diagnosed with schizophrenia, lifelong drug treatment may be necessary. Mona has been on medication for a long time with neuroleptics - antipsychotic drugs. It is a type of drug that blocks the brain's uptake of dopamine and thus relieves the psychotic symptoms, that is, the hallucinations and delusions.
Unfortunately, neuroleptics are drugs that have many troublesome side effects. This means that many people stop taking them, which increases the risk of the person falling ill again. Another difficulty is that the psychosis may make it difficult for the person to remember to maintain the medication, or that increasing paranoid symptoms may make the person afraid to take the medication. Which is what happened to Mona when she became acutely ill.
In Mona's case, the drugs reduce the voice hallucinations and paranoid delusions. She has been on medication for a long time and has been set on a low dose that minimizes the side effects. Overall, her medication is working well, as long as she maintains it. When Mona was cared for in the 24-hour ward, she received depot injections. This means that the drug is activated gradually, so that a dose lasts for a longer period. As Mona still expresses some concern about the medication, the decision on LPT has been converted to ÖPT, i.e. open psychiatric compulsory care.
ÖPT becomes relevant when a person is no longer judged to need round-the-clock care, but still resists certain necessary treatment interventions. In Mona's case, this means that she has to receive depot injections and that she has to let her residential support workers and the mobile team in and receive their help.
As with the usual form of LPT, the aim is for the ÖPT to end as soon as possible. That is, as soon as Mona herself sees her need for care and care and agrees to it.
Read about co-morbidity with addiction and imagine that Mona, in addition to her diagnoses, also had a drug addiction.
How would that affect her treatment?
What treatment would she need to get rid of the addiction?