One important principle in the treatment of major psychiatric disorders, schizophrenia, depression, etc., in psychiatry is adequate dosage and full course of treatment. Although every psychiatrist knows this, some doctors often fail to adhere to it in clinical treatment. As a result, the effectiveness of the disease is compromised. The disease often relapses. Family members or patients are even less able to accept this principle of treatment, which often leads to treatment failure. Since most psychiatric disorders are chronic, if they do not go into remission for a long time. Patients will slowly disengage from society, unable to study, work and live normally. Finally, they become mentally disabled. Therefore, we should pay great attention to this treatment principle. Here we briefly introduce this knowledge, hoping that family members and patients can cooperate well with doctors to treat the disease. A. Adequate dosage The so-called adequate dosage means that the dosage of drugs should be sufficient. If the dose is not enough, the efficacy is generally not good. The disease cannot be cured. Therefore: 1. Single drug therapy is very important. Only then the drug dose may reach a high dose. Multiple drugs used simultaneously, often because of increased side effects, each drug can not be used in high doses. Therefore the treatment is not effective. Of course, for patients with treatment difficulties, after the single treatment of multiple drugs. The combination of drugs can be considered, but usually only two drugs are combined. At the same time, each drug is required to reach a sufficient dose. 2. Adequate doses are required during the acute, consolidation and maintenance phases of drug therapy. Never reduce the dose of drugs easily because the condition has improved. Otherwise, once the disease relapses, all the treatment will be abandoned. Moreover, treatment of relapse is more difficult and often ineffective. That is why we emphasize that the first treatment of mental illness is very important. Many patients have only this one chance to be completely cured. Second, the full course of treatment Since the major mental illnesses are basically chronic diseases. At the same time, the efficacy of drugs takes time to show. Therefore, when we treat mental illness, we should pay special attention to the time issue in treatment. That is, the duration of treatment is sufficient. Generally we divide the treatment of mental illness into three periods: 1. Acute period This period is the beginning of drug treatment and the dose reaches a sufficient level. The medication is then maintained at this adequate dose for 4-6 weeks. The basic principle is that, on the one hand, the medication has sufficient dose to have a real effect, and on the other hand, it takes more than 4 weeks for the medication to have a real effect. (Sometimes it can be longer). (1) If this 4-6 week period is not maintained, the treatment will be halted. The medication will not achieve its true therapeutic effect. (2) If this 4-6 week period has been reached and the disease does not improve. You should decisively change your treatment plan and use other medications that may be effective. Do not delay too long. 2, consolidation period This period refers to the disease has reached healing after drug treatment. The symptoms disappear. The patient is in a normal condition. Due to the high possibility of relapse of mental illness. We must have a period of consolidation. In this period we need to adhere to the two criteria of medication: (1) the dose of medication should not be reduced during the consolidation period. Do not reduce the dose of medication just because the patient is completely normal. A reduction in dosage at this time often leads to a reappearance of the condition. Some doctors and patients often think that the dose of medication is less important because the treatment has reached its goal. Such a perception is completely wrong. (2) The duration of the consolidation period is generally considered to be between 4 and 9 months. Most experts now accept 6 months. That is, the high dose of the drug should be maintained for at least 6 months. For some special patients a longer consolidation period may be needed. Also, I personally recommend not to reduce the dose of the drug during the season when the disease is prone to recurrence. Dose reduction can usually be started in early summer. 3. Maintenance period This period is the maintenance treatment. Since many mental illnesses have a high relapse rate within 2 or 5 years. We must keep the patient from relapsing with medication. There are two controversial issues here: (1) The dose of drugs: We used to think that the dose of drugs in the maintenance period should be relatively low. It should be used as little as possible. But in recent years, most domestic and foreign experts believe that the dose should not be too low. Too low a dose is often a major factor in the relapse of the disease. Therefore, it is now believed that if the drug has no significant side effects, then the dose of the drug does not need to be reduced. Always keep the dose that is effective for treatment at that time. If the side effects of the drug are too great, the drug can be reduced in small amounts. Never reduce the drug drastically. (2) The question of the duration of the maintenance period. For schizophrenia it is more clear. A particularly long maintenance period is required. This time is generally determined by the patient’s many conditions. The specific decision needs to be made by the physician. There are many different views on the duration of maintenance for depression. We do know, however, that the longer the illness, the longer the maintenance time should be. The duration of maintenance for other mental illnesses can be determined by the doctor depending on the patient’s condition. Summary: Treatment for most mental illnesses should be medication based. Regular use of medications can better treat the illness. Inadequate treatment is often the reason why the illness does not completely improve. Relapse of the illness is mainly a result of medication not being given in sufficient doses and maintained for a sufficient period of time. It is not the so-called mental stimulation. Patients who are generally cured by treatment are fully capable of bearing the social responsibilities and the mental stress often encountered by normal people. Therefore, we need to return patients who are stable in treatment to normal social life as early as possible. Rather than long-term recuperation at home.