In the Department of Psychiatry, we often come into contact with the families of patients who have too little knowledge about mental health or are not sufficiently prepared for their loved ones suffering from mental disorders, which makes them have some misunderstandings in the process of seeking medical treatment. For example, they do not have a correct understanding of mental symptoms; they are afraid of the side effects of Western medicine and use Chinese medicine for treatment. They are reluctant to go to a general hospital to see a psychiatric specialist; they change doctors and medications frequently; and some stop or reduce medication immediately after being discharged from the hospital with clinical cure, leading to recurrence of the disease. These misconceptions affect both the diagnosis and treatment of patients, and can also cause doctor-patient conflicts. The main misconceptions are as follows: 1. The problem can be solved without taking antipsychotic drugs: With the popularization of mental health knowledge, the pathogenic role of psychosocial factors is gradually recognized. However, some people attach too much importance to the role of psychotherapy, they believe that the patient’s disorder is only a psychological problem, not a mental illness, so they do not want to take drugs. This will inevitably lead to a gradual aggravation of the condition and affect the effectiveness of treatment. 2, antipsychotic drugs can solve everything: Because the etiology, performance, treatment, prognosis of mental illness are different from other diseases, many psychiatric patients or family members still hope that doctors can cure mental illness by prescribing drugs, but do not recognize the role of psychosocial factors in the treatment of mental illness, especially neurosis, reactive mental disorders and other diseases. Often, patients’ families are reluctant to provide psychological factors related to mental illness, believing that doctors can help patients relieve insomnia, worry, tension, anxiety, depression and other symptoms by simply using medications. It is not known that although drugs can relieve some symptoms, some patients must be combined with psychotherapy to achieve the best performance. 3, frequent change of doctors and drugs: The occurrence and development of schizophrenia, affective disorders and other mental illnesses have their own natural laws, when in a period of acute development, even if relatively timely treatment, drugs take a certain amount of time to take effect, roughly 2 to 4 weeks. Doctors also have to consider the patient’s age, the presence of physical illness and physical condition, so it is impossible for most patients to control their illness immediately. Some patients’ families are so eager to heal that they are suspicious and accusatory of physicians, intervene unreasonably in treatment, and change doctors frequently. Some family members have heard that a certain drug is effective for a certain disease and repeatedly ask the doctor to switch the patient to a certain drug. Psychiatric medication has its own rules, generally after 6 to 8 weeks of drug application is ineffective, and on the basis of a full dose, only then consider switching to other drug therapy. 4, the combination of a variety of drugs is effective: In fact, patients generally need only one or two drugs, too much medication side effects increase, the efficacy does not increase 5, think that Chinese medicine is effective without side effects: see the ads on mail order, many deceived, many Chinese medicine capsules contain western drugs. At present, schizophrenia is mainly Western medicine, and its efficacy is better than that of Chinese medicine. 6, antipsychotic drugs do not have to be taken for a long time: one of the measures to prevent relapse of most mental illnesses is the maintenance treatment of drugs. For patients with a first episode of psychosis, through a combination of medication and psychological treatment, about 70% to 80% of patients are able to achieve clinical recovery, that is, the patient’s psychiatric symptoms disappear and the ability to work and learn before the disease is restored. For patients with first-episode schizophrenia, after being discharged from the hospital after systematic treatment, the relapse rate is about 50% if maintenance treatment is not provided, about 75% for the next relapse after the second episode, and up to 90% after three episodes. There is no universally accepted standard for the duration of maintenance treatment, and a new understanding in psychiatry is that patients who can tolerate themselves on the basis of maintenance doses without significant drug side effects (including somatic and laboratory tests) can be maintained on a long-term basis. However, many first-episode psychiatric patients and their families do not understand this, and often do not want to bear the trouble of long-term medication, or can not tolerate the side effects of drugs, or the heart of a fluke, etc. and unwilling to accept long-term maintenance treatment, to be relapsed when it is too late to regret. 7, the higher the price of drugs, the better the efficacy, some expensive drugs are not as good as the low price of the effect. 8, abuse of supplements: most mental illness is not due to nutritional deficiencies, there is no need to take too many supplements. 9, others with effective I should also be effective, the same disease different people with different drugs, others effective, you may not be effective. 10, surgery or self-created or ancestral acupuncture, Chinese medicine and other magical treatments, etc.: boasts of a cure, surgery for the treatment of mental illness, has been stopped by the Ministry of Health, but some hospitals not under the management of the Ministry of Health, personal contracted departments, still doing such surgery, the long-term results are overwhelmingly unsatisfactory, a year or two later relapse, you must also re-medication. Family members should cooperate with doctors and supervise patients to take medication on time and in the right amount. If, after systematic treatment, the effect is really not good, the doctor will promptly switch to other antipsychotic drugs. Because the drugs themselves are dualistic in nature, they can cure the disease but may also produce serious side effects, such as some antipsychotics that cause weight gain, amenorrhea, lactation and other side effects, so it is only safe to change medications under the guidance of a doctor. Some patients’ family members are eager to achieve success and take the initiative to increase the dosage of medication or take other psychiatric drugs at the same time, which may cause serious drug side effects and worsen the condition of the patient. If the drug is not effective after a full dose and a full course of treatment, “convulsion-free electrotherapy” can be considered.