What is the Treatment of Schizotypal Personality Disorder?

Schizotypal personality disorder is one of the common mental health conditions in which a person has difficulty with relationships. Those with the disorder usually have cognitive or perceptual distortions. They always make wrong or incorrect interpretations of all incidents and events as having a particular and unusual meaning specifically for the person.

Those affected by the disorder may be unusually preoccupied with paranormal phenomena. The mental condition signs are often confused with anxiety, depression or other dysphoric affects rather than for the personality disorder features per se. To diagnose schizotypal personality disorder, a mental health professional evaluates a person's symptoms and life history to figure out if he/she has the mental disorder.

Treatment Options for Schizotypal Personality Disorder

A combination of medication and psychotherapy is an ideal treatment for schizotypal personality disorder. After evaluating a person’s condition, medications will be prescribed if there are obvious symptoms. Antipsychotic medications, such as risperidone (Risperdal) and olanzapine (Zyprexa), are prescribed for illogical thinking. On similar lines, antidepressant and anti-anxiety medications are given to the patients with depression and anxiety.

Psychotherapy is not an easy option for people with schizotypal personality disorder, as they tend to be uncomfortable in relationships. So, a therapist has to learn how to respond to patient’s thoughts and perceptions or ease their difficulty of social interactions.

A patient is able to cope with relatively little support when symptoms are mild to moderate. In case of severe problems, a person may find routine interactions at work awkward or have difficulties in even the basic things. Owing to this, those with the disorder needs more support from near ones.

Expected Duration and Prognosis

Personality disorders are chronic (long-lasting). Unlike an illness such as depression, the symptoms of schizotypal personality disorders tend to be consistently present rather than occurring in episodes.

The overall prognosis of schizotypal personality disorder is not good as recovery from the condition depends on many factors. The severity of the symptoms, the availability of support and how much a person ability to function is affected hold key. However, prognosis improves significantly if a person is willing or is participating in the treatment.

A patient with schizotypal personality disorder is not expected to become comfortable socially all of a sudden, even if he responds well to medications and therapy.

Prevention

There is no definite way to prevent the disorder, although early intervention helps minimise symptoms.

Read more articles on Mental Health