I’ve had this illness for 23 years. In a way there has been one significant difference in my community for treating my disorder as a Psych Ward has been built and there have been some newer drugs made that improved the hallucinations and didn’t have the movement problems other drugs had. But unfortunately they greatly promoted weight gain and in many cases remain greatly overpriced. When I stated on SSI at 24 I was not allowed to work for pay. Then they came up with a system where you could work but was disqualified if you earned too much. I know some of you are not on SSI or SSDI and work but I’ve seen statistics that you make up about a quarter of schiizophrenics. After a period of making actual new drugs most of the latest “new drugs” are now extended release versions of the old ones rather than improvements of them. I have seen talk of a schizophrenia blood test and an eye test but later discovered the companies that were going to market them found out they weren’t as accurate as originally stated and went out of business. I have seen plenty of research on ideas on why schizophrenia happen but they still admit they really don’t really know and question each other’s theories all the time. I found the best way to deal with schizophrenia was to live with it after 23 years and cope the best I can with the drug lowered hallucinations I still suffer from and the negative symptoms as well. Scientific achievements have been few and real tangible progress has been limited with this disease. I’m not saying that there’s no hope of ever finding a cure but we are miles away from it and doctor don’t even know yet which drug is appropriate for each sufferer and must do a trial and error process that can take years. I hope the next 23 years are better.
There are many drugs in development now, most of which tackle new mechanisms of action, as we drift farther and farther away from the simplistic dopamine theory. We will shortly see major developments in basic research too, with the advent of optogenetics and advancements in imaging techniques. Progress has never been linear, sometimes long periods of stagnation are followed by rapid increases. I believe the time is ripe now for such a breakthrough in schizophrenia too. Time will tell, but I bet the next 10 years will be very exciting.
Dont forget about iti-007 and pimavanserin
Yeah after having been labelled with schizophrenia for 10 years have not worked…I get a phony payment from a job I worked for a day, owe $75 to IRS for no reason, and don’t qualify for SSI because I was “misdiagnosed” …this entire system sucks.