A Case of Negative Symptoms of Schizophrenia

Objectives : Jeon-Jeung(癲證) is one of negative symptoms from schizophrenia in Western medecine, which causes flattening of affect, emotional bluntness, and avolition. Compared with positive symptoms of schizophrenia, there is no established treatments that have been proved to be effective for negative symptoms, and since negative symptoms are chronically processed, they finally lead to devastate the mental health. Since Jeon-Jeung(癲證) is usually in set in adolescent period and tends to become chronic through life time, it is important to start getting treatments in early stage by being distinguished from other diseases, such as anxiety disorder. A patient in this case was affective blunting, general weakness, and delusion when sixteen years old. However, he refused to get Western medicine treatment and wanted oriental medicine treatment. Methods : The patient in this case had been suffered from severe stress from his family since he was young and had kept having irregular and unhealthy eating habits. Therefore, he diagnosed stagnant qi transforming into fire(氣鬱化火), heart blood deficiency(心血虛), and spleen-stomach deficiency cold(脾胃虛寒) and since then he had received several treatments including herbal treatment, acupumcture treatment, supportive therapy, and family therapy. These treatments were successful and reduced the level of symptoms. After discharged from the hospital, he had continued receiving outpatient treatment with his family for 8 months and his progress had been still observed after the discharge. Results : The symptoms of patient had been almost reduced and eliminated after he received 29days of admission treatment and the patient got better and better and now lives a normal life 8 months outpatient treatment. Conclusions : This result suggests that our oriental medical treatments and family treatments was effective on schizophrenia.

전증(癲證) 환자의 치험 1례