free Trudy is a 49-year-old woman recently diagnosed with schizophrenia. While she has a strong family history of mood disorders, and has herself evidenced some depressive symptoms by history, her delusions and diagnosis of schizophrenia were a big surprise to herself and her family. She has been married for 25 years and by all accounts has had a successful marriage and family life until the last few months when she became increasingly concerned that her best friend was trying to seduce her husband. Further history suggests that she has paranoid delusions and that her memos from work carried messages that her coworkers were trying to destroy her family. Trudy was finally referred for care when she tried to attack a coworker. There is no apparent precipitating factor, and her family cannot understand why she is just now demonstrating symptoms of schizophrenia. Now that she is in treatment, which elements of her history support a good prognosis?

Answer: There are a few elements of her history that will support a good prognosis. The main elements are a strong family unit and a long lasting marriage. With family history of mood disorders and Trudy having had some depressive issues and worked through them on her own supports a good prognosis. Schizophrenia has been shown to come out in females at an older age than men. There are several psychotropic medications that can be given to Trudy to help her live her life with little to no symptoms.

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