Cognitive-behavioral therapy helps to treat symptoms of schizophrenia for which drugs are ineffective

 

 

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that, at its worst, ravages the totality of everyday life. It is hard to imagine what people with the severest forms of the ailment experience as anything but biologically driven, a direct consequence of aberrant chemical and electrical activity occurring deep within the brain.

As a neuropsychologist, I have often seen convincing evidence of schizophrenia’s biological underpinnings in my dealings with patients. To illustrate what I mean, I will describe “Billy”—a composite profile derived from various patients I encountered in my work at the Institute of Living in Hartford, Conn. Billy exhibits the detachment from reality and emotional agony brought on by a psychotic episode, symptoms experienced by many people with schizophrenia.


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