Patient: Dr. Ling: Hello! I am the patient’s daughter and I am here to ask for your help! My mother attended a training program in the name of the church about 11 years ago, and for about 10 years, the organizer of the program led them in an intensive confession. After she came back, she started to hear hallucinations and felt that someone was harming her or her family. I heard from my father that my mother was fragile and pessimistic, and that she had had hysteria many years ago. This time, she suffered a big mental stimulation, which led to mental abnormalities. We later visited a local psychiatric hospital in Hunan Province and were diagnosed with schizophrenia and have been taking fenadine, Valium tablets, etc. During the 11 years, she did not stick to her medication very well because she kept refusing to take it, and her family could not do anything about it, and it continued from time to time. Her condition was also good and bad, except for her irritability, mumbling, babbling, and insomnia, her daily chores and life were still normal. She did not want to go to the hospital herself, but my father went to the hospital with her medical records to prescribe medication. The treatment was not effective. In March and April of this year, she began to visit the psychiatric department of another local general hospital, taking the drug silicofibric acid fumarate tablets, two at a time, twice a day, for more than half a year. On December 1 of this year, the left liver and gallbladder were removed due to the diagnosis of liver and gallstones, and the surgeon judged that the psychiatric drugs she had been taking for years were also more damaging to her liver. So she did not take any more western medicine during this time. So, she now had another attack and started to be self-conscious, not wanting to go out and walk around or contact others, always feeling that someone around her was harming her. Our family is in great pain and we hope our mom can return to her normal life and enjoy it soon. We would like your help to know if there is any hope for a cure for my mother’s condition, whether she needs to be hospitalized if she is brought to Beijing for treatment, and whether there are other methods besides medication? If she is hospitalized, what is the duration of this treatment? Also, if she is hospitalized, what is the approximate cost? So that we can be prepared. If there is hope, we would like to bring her to Beijing for treatment in January 2010. Thank you and I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you! Beijing Huilongguan Hospital Psychiatry Department Ling Jueang: Your mother’s disease is in the chronic stage, so it is difficult to cure it, but there is still hope to control the symptoms. Some psychiatric medications, especially the older antipsychotics such as chlorpromazine, fenazepam, and methiodiazine, have some damage to liver function, but they do not cause gallstone disease or serious liver necrosis. The hospitalization cost in Beijing may be more expensive than your local one. Generally speaking, the average monthly hospitalization cost in our hospital is about 6000 RMB, and the hospitalization period is usually 3 months. It is recommended to consult locally to reduce your own financial burden. Patient: Thank you Dr. Ling for your reply! I will discuss with my family and try to get my mom to come to Beijing for treatment. The biggest headache we have now is that she is not cooperating with us at all, refusing to take her medication or listen to any persuasion, and is completely immersed in her own world. I believe the hospital will have some way to guide her. What we learned locally is that small local hospitals often use electric shocks when patients get out of control, and we were very uncomfortable with that. We don’t know what we can do to persuade her to come to Beijing for treatment. I don’t know how long she needs to stay in the hospital at least in this case. Is it possible to have a family member stay with her? My family lives in Huilongguan district, which is quite convenient to your hospital. I believe the medical level in Beijing is much better, and if there is still hope for my mom, we will try our best to let her live a normal life, even if it is five or ten years. Also, Dr. Ling, in her case, she may have to take medication for life, right? Is there any medicine with less side effects? Also, what is the best way to get her to listen to us? Thank you for replying to my inquiry in your busy schedule, and thank you for your hard work for your patients and families! I wish you a happy New Year’s Day and good luck at work! Thank you again! Beijing Huilongguan Hospital Psychiatry Department Ling shoot ang: people who have this disease generally do not think they have a disease, so only when her condition is reduced will she cooperate with treatment. Inpatient treatment can be done in place. We generally also have a modified electroconvulsive therapy, called non-convulsive electroconvulsive therapy, which is used to treat those patients with persistent delusions, strong suicidal ideation, very excited and difficult to control, the effect is better, but it is only a transitional treatment means. If we want to perform this treatment, we will definitely discuss with the family and we will do it only if the family agrees, not to punish the patient. For patients with recurrent attacks, lifelong maintenance treatment with medication is usually required. It is better to face it positively than to avoid it.