Subjective Well-being of Patients with Schizophrenia as a Target of Drug Treatment
An important development within the last decades is the consideration of the patient's perspective and the acknowledgement that the majority of patients are able to judge their state of well-being. Several self-report scales such as the “The Subjective Well-being under Neuroleptics
Scale” (SWN) have been established. Additionally to their beneficial impact, current antipsychotics have considerable limitations. Antipsychotic-related side effects, such as extrapyramidalmotor symptoms, weight gain and obesity, apathy and anhedonia have an important influence on the
patient’s wellbeing. Evidence suggests that the so-called neuroleptic-induced deficit syndrome under antipsychotics might be caused by the inhibition of the dopaminergic reward system. A reduced activation of the ventral striatum, including the nucleus accumbens is associated with negative
symptom severity. Second-generation antipsychotics (henceforth SGA) block striatal D2 receptors less and show a weaker binding to D2 receptors, have interactions with several other neurotransmitters and inhibit to a lesser degree the reward functions compared to first-generation antipsychotics
(henceforth FGA). This may support the reduction of negative symptoms, contributes to a higher subjective well-being, a better medication adherence and thereby an improved therapeutic outcome. The involvement of the patient and the consideration of his/her subjective wellbeing will be a major
aspect in the development of new treatment strategies in schizophrenia and has a significant impact on the adherence and the long-term prognosis.
Keywords: "extrapyramidalmotor symptoms"; Schizophrenia; antipsychotic agents; antipsychotics; eurotransmitters; long-term prognosis; reward system; subjective well being; syndrome; therapeutic; treatment strategies; ventral striatum
Document Type: Research Article
Publication date: 01 June 2012
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