My mom was diagnosed with schizophrenia (the paranoia type) about 8 years ago. After being in the hospital for a year, she was put on medication and ever since then shes been okay. Lately, she’s been acting like how she was when she first got sick. She’s been crying all the time, and shes been extremely paranoid. She’s been telling me that people are following her, out to get her. And when were out in public she’ll tell me that people around us are saying things to her even when they’re not. She recently told me that she’s not actually schizophrenic, but a victim of remote neural monitoring. Is that actually a thing? She said that the NSA have been doing it to people and that there was even a lawsuit. Regardless, I know my Mom is ill and I’m not too sure what to do. I know shes taking her medication, but I don’t think they’re working anymore. I love my Mom and I don’t like seeing her like this, but I really have no idea what to do.
NO - No such thing exists. That sounds like a typical paranoid delusion - check out the "unusual thoughts area of the “diagnosed forum”.
Can you join your mother on her next visit with the psychiatrist - it sounds like her medications are no longer working. They have injections now that go for 1 to 3 months that might be best for your mother at least until she gets doing well again…
I’ve read accounts of Niacin working, but it didn’t help my son at all - and he believes a lot of the same things as your mom.
If you want to try the Niacin, it won’t hurt her if she’s willing to take it. My son tried it and experienced a very uncomfortable hot flush and moderate doses. They literature explains that’s what you will feel if you don’t really need it. Maybe it will work for her?
The injections are great if you can convince her to try them. They’ve really helped a lot of people when oral meds failed. We started talking to our son about all the positives to a once-a-month shot early on - mostly convenience and how we would take one instead of our daily pills if we could.
He was still resistant and only agreed to try them once they were in the hospital and the doctor there talked to him more about it & he got the idea it would get him home faster.
It’s not unusual for any med to give out. Sometimes, higher dosages work - other times, you need to switch to something new. The good news is that she’ll take the meds - that’s half the battle right there.
Another idea - how’s her sleep? Sometimes, if the meds are working somewhat, and you can get them to sleep regular hours, it helps a lot. That’s just something to try until you can get her back to the doctor.
Dr. Hoffer did his research about 30 or 40 years ago and a lot of research has been done since then. Lots of studies were done on Niacin after Hoffer’s original study and they unfortunately all came up negative. You can see our summary here:
There are some compounds (vitamins and supplements) that early but good (duplicated, double blind studies) research is showing positive results. You can read about them here: