Schizophrenia relapse and its consequences

In April 2025, Dak Lak Provincial Mental Hospital received and examined more than 1,600 patients, including nearly 450 patients with schizophrenia and nearly 70 patients with severe relapse of schizophrenia who had to be hospitalized for treatment.

According to Dr. Nguyen Thi Be, Head of the Department of Women's Treatment (Provincial Mental Hospital), schizophrenia is a serious mental disorder that often appears in people aged 20-30 in all social classes. The disease progresses in a chronic manner, leaving lifelong sequelae for the patient.

When suffering from schizophrenia, the patient will experience symptoms of paranoia, hallucinations, agitation, thinking that others are harming them... leading to easy harm to themselves and those around them. Therefore, schizophrenia needs to be treated early to help the patient recover quickly as well as minimize symptoms that are dangerous to health.

A doctor talks with a patient with multiple mental relapses at Dak Lak Provincial Mental Hospital. Photo: Quang Nhat

However, in reality, there are many schizophrenic patients who, after receiving active treatment and being discharged from the hospital, do not comply with the treatment regimen and stop taking their medication, causing the disease to relapse, worsening the feeling of paranoia, hallucinations, and agitation...

For example, in the case of patient VTHT (26 years old, residing in Ea Kar district), 6 years ago, when he was a second-year university student at a law school, HT began to show symptoms of auditory hallucinations, often sad, crying, and just closing the door and being alone. Seeing that HT had unusual signs, his family took him to the Provincial Mental Hospital for examination and treatment. Since then, HT has had to be hospitalized many times due to relapse. The reason is that each time he was stable after treatment and discharged from the hospital, he saw that he no longer had symptoms, so he stopped taking his medication.

Or the case of patient NMK (residing in Buon Ma Thuot City) was also hospitalized for schizophrenia relapsed 6 times in two years due to non-compliance with treatment and life pressures. Each time K. was hospitalized, the mental symptoms became more severe. NMK shared: “When I returned home from the hospital, I returned to my busy, stressful work routine, and my family members did not share, thought I was crazy, and discriminated against me, making me even more sad. I did not take the medicine prescribed by the doctors because I found it difficult to sleep, so many times the disease relapsed and I had to be hospitalized.”

Mentally ill patients need sharing, understanding and companionship from relatives and society. Photo: Quang Nhat

Although most psychiatric patients can be treated as outpatients, only needing to be hospitalized during the acute phase, a dangerous characteristic of schizophrenia is the high risk of relapse, ranging from 50 - 92%. The cause of relapse is often related to non-compliance with medication, use of stimulants, psychological trauma, etc.

According to Dr. Nguyen Thi Be, when schizophrenia relapses, patients will have early signs to recognize such as: changes in living habits, eating, sleeping; patients have mysterious, paranoid, strange, and difficult to understand thoughts; do not pay attention to personal hygiene; become aloof, withdrawn, and isolated from society; lose interest in life... Gradually leading to the patient's personality disintegration.

“Schizophrenia is characterized by progressive psychotic relapses. Relatives need to know the early signs of relapse to take the patient to a specialized medical facility for timely treatment. Early detection and treatment will help shorten the treatment process, help the patient recover quickly, and reduce dangerous symptoms to health. In cases where treatment is not given early, the disease will not only affect the patient's health but also create a burden for the family and society,” Dr. Be emphasized.

According to doctors, in order for schizophrenic patients to avoid relapse, in addition to complying with treatment, sharing, understanding, and companionship from family members are extremely necessary. Because stigma and alienation will have a negative impact on the patient's perception, making them feel self-conscious, stressed, and even unwilling to be hospitalized for treatment.

Ngoc Lan – Mai Le

Source: https://baodaklak.vn/y-te-suc-khoe/202505/tam-than-phan-liet-tai-phat-va-nhung-he-luy-db50de0/