Schizophrenia withour medication

Is it possible to treat schizophrenia without medication?

The answer in my opinion is no. My brother is treatment resistant in the schizophrenia spectrum of a range that puts him in the minority, he is being treated with the minimum of medication. This is thanks to a wonderful program in California that treats schizophrenics with humanity and respect. The clinic mentioned below can be found at www.schizophrenia-help.com and www.schizophreniatherapy.com. IN NO WAY, am i being asked to solicit this clinic that treats people suffering from schizophrenia. My brother is a patient and I can vouch for the humanity and care he has been given, found NOWHERE else in the world. I searched far and wide and was lucky to have the funds to do it. After 8 years of searching, I found this clinic on 60 minutes, believe it or not. Went there the next day and hid in the bushes.

that's right... I wanted to see how people were treated that noone was looking. I found what I was looking for. The nightmares of the Menninger foundation were over. Here was a place that truly cared for people suffering from schizophrenia and I hope you read the story of this wonderful clinic that has allowed my brother to claim somewhat a life away from hallucinations, and just being so totally lost.

here is the story of the clinic in the words of his founder, Jack Rosberg.

The seeds of the Anne Sippi Clinic were sown long before its emergence in 1975. I began my career in 1954 supervised by John N. Rosen, M.D. in Bucks County, PA. Dr. Rosen was, along with Harry S. Sullivan and Freida Fromm Reichman, one of the earliest contributors to the psychotherapy of schizophrenia in the United States. He introduced a very active treatment for schizophrenia form with the most severely regressed schizophrenic patients. His approach aroused the curiosity of the professional world. To quote Lawrence Kubie:"if nothing else, he rocked the professional world out of its complacency." Rosen had his professional practice outside of hospitals and his patients resided in houses in a farming community, which in those days and even today, represents a unique treatment setting for schizophrenia .
I had the privilege of developing a treatment direction for schizophrenia during my work with Rosen that I later called Direct Confrontation. When I left Dr. Rosen in mid 1957 and entered into private practice in dealing with patients diagnosed as schizophrenic in private hospitals in Los Angeles, CA., it became increasingly apparent to me that treatment with the serious mentally ill was severely hampered by the restrictions imposed by a staff that focused treatment with these patients on the medical model. The physical methods of treatment, such as Electric Convulsive Therapy, the growing emphasis on medication for schizophrenia as a treatment of choice and the long periods of time spent in psychiatric hospitals were iatrogenic. Many great contributors including Eugene Bleuler, who coined the term schizophrenia, cautioned about the negative effects of long term hospitalization. My primary interest was and is the psychotherapy of schizophrenia. I found, much to my surprise, quite early in my career, the different and innovative directions in treatment other than traditional methods disturbed the professional world around me and many obstacles were strewn in my path. However, despite this I continued working with patients actively with the growing realization that effecting a relationship and a shared belief system, led to a more positive and lasting outcome than the palliative measures used by the majority of the professionals in the world of mental health.
The developing course of my treatment direction stimulated the interest of professionals from the psychoanalytic to the reality oriented and even to the Orthomolecular world. These were mature individuals. People who could look at new ideas and treatment directions, without any preconceived ideas. Professionals, such as Martin Grotjahn, M.D. a distinguished training analyst. Psychiatrists, Humphrey Osmond, Abraham Hoffer, Harvey Ross and a host of those involved in other treatment directions, became supportive as they perceived my efforts influencing change with regressed schizophrenics. It was Dr. Harvey Ross who introduced me to Anne Sippi, a young woman, hospitalized at a small psychiatric hospital in Los Angeles. I was told by staff members that this woman was hopeless and that nothing could be done to help her. Dr. Ross asked me to do a consultation with Anne Sippi, who he had worked with for a considerable period of time. He believed that she could not be successfully treated and was about to recommend custodial care in a state hospital. I was the last stop it appears before that happened. I had developed a reputation of dealing with the most difficult population.
Anne Sippi had been sick, since childhood. She was treated and hospitalized many times with no significant relief from the ravages of her schizophrenic condition. She was violent much of the time and also restrained more often than not, in these hospitals. She was a terrified human being, when I met her. Her vocabulary had shrunk to several words. Her fear and resulting violence persuaded hospital staff to stay away from her as much as possible. In her terrified state, this woman, this human being, was left alone to deal with the nightmare of her existence. My first contact with her was a dynamic confrontation, which led me to believe that she was a very treatable person.
I discussed these issues with Dr. Harvey Ross and her mother, Jane Henderson. They agreed that I should work with Anne Sippi. I then began a psychotherapeutic assault on her illness and made rapid contact with her, that led to a therapeutic alliance. My efforts at controlling her schizophrenic impulses reduced her fears and she progressed enough to be moved to an open unit in the hospital, soon after treatment began. I then engaged Chess Brodnick and his wife - my first students - to begin a resocialization procedure with her by taking her out of the hospital on a daily basis. This was, at that time, unprecedented with patients who were severely disturbed schizophrenics , as was Anne Sippi. This procedure, supported by daily psychotherapy sessions with a very restricted medication regimen, began to produce behavioral changes in Anne Sippi.
For many years it has been clear to me that behavioral changes lead to insight, not the other way around. After all, the primary goal in treatment for schizophrenia is change and of course relief from the agonizing symptoms of this condition. It should be understood that many patients cannot process information because of the length and the severity of their illness. Because of this, insight oriented treatment has not succeeded in the psychotherapy of the long term schizophrenic.
I do not underestimate or minimize the enormous struggle that took place with Anne Sippi, however, we undertook the struggle because we believed that she was worth it and that it was our responsibility to help her, because she could not help herself. There was nothing expedient in our efforts. She was not overwhelmed with medication. We felt a sense of hope and as a result of our efforts, she began to feel a sense of hope as well. It began to express itself in her will to control her impulses and aggression - at last she felt safer and not alone. Our faith in her humanity and the belief that we had that there was more than pathology in this human being, began to give her a growing feeling of self worth. She improved gradually and the quality of her life was better and she was able to live with her peers comfortably and socially.
We met with Jane Henderson, her mother, and agreed that our respective experiences mandated that we find some way to develop a treatment alternative to hospitals. The Anne Sippi Clinic was born. Named after this woman, who came out of the depths of despair into a life that had love, laughter and peace. Out of this incredible battle with this so called hopeless human being came a treatment alternative that eventually became an example of a newer and a more hopeful direction in treatment.
The Anne Sippi Clinic began as a day care center, accepting the so called hopeless ones and having them live outside of hospitals, which by itself, improved the quality of their lives. After a well known rock star did a concert for us, we were able to purchase a facility that became The Anne Sippi Clinic, Residential Treatment Center. The Clinic exists in a community composed of single dwellings and we have been able to reach a sense of harmony with our neighbors. That by itself represents a significant lesson in the sense that people can learn to live with each other when respect leads to understanding.
Our psychosocial program was established in 1978 with myself as Clinical Director, Chess Brodnick as Treatment Director and eventually Michael Rosberg as Program Director. The treatment program had as its basis an active psychotherapy called Direct Confrontation. Also, included were retraining in some of the basic skills of living and introducing our residents back into the community, when they were able to successful interact with the world in a socially acceptable way. The Anne Sippi Clinic has 32 beds and is fully staffed on a 24 hour basis. However, the atmosphere is non-institutional. The Clinic is an open facility with large grounds that allows for physical activities. We have had the honor of hosting many distinguished visitors from the United States and abroad. The initial response from these visitors is enthusiastic remarks about the warmth and commitment of the staff with patients and the feeling of freedom that is in the atmosphere. Empathy and hope is the philosophy.
Before the inception of the clinic, I began doing workshops in California and other parts of the United States. Because of the uniqueness of the clinics approach to treatment, there was a great deal of media coverage. Soon thereafter, came invitations from twelve countries wherein I had the pleasure of introducing the Anne Sippi Clinic treatment concepts. We have touched and influenced the lives of many human beings with schizophrenia and stimulated mental health professionals in the United States, Mexico, Scandinavia, Russia and other areas of the world. Out of these efforts arose the Anne Sippi Foundation, for Training and Research and the A.P.S., International (Association for Psychotherapy of Schizophrenia) for Training and Treatment on an International basis.
Currently, the Directors of the Anne Sippi Clinic are Chess Brodnick, PhD., Treatment Director, and Michael Rosberg, PhD. Program Director.
There is definite linkage between the three entities, The Anne Sippi Clinic, The Anne Sippi Foundation for Training and Research and the Association of Psychotherapy for Schizophrenia, International. My current interest has to do with training - as the Executive Director of the Anne Sippi Foundation and the Clinical Director of A.P.S. International.
Our aims, are convergent. Treatment for the forgotten and discarded. Our hope, that they can improve the quality of their lives, our efforts in informing the professional world and others, that people afflicted with this dreadful condition, called schizophrenia, can improve, if we have a sense of faith, hope and commitment. This is our belief and it has become a self fulfilling prophecy. of schizophrenia with allot of care and love for these individuals suffering from this mental illness.