What is Schizophrenia and What Causes It?

Schizophrenia is a serious mental health condition that affects how people think, feel and behave. It may result in a mix of hallucinations, delusions, and disorganized thinking and behavior. Hallucinations involve seeing things or hearing voices that aren't observed by others. Delusions involve firm beliefs about things that are not true. People with schizophrenia can seem to lose touch with reality, which can make daily living very hard.

People with schizophrenia need lifelong treatment. This includes medicine, talk therapy and help in learning how to manage daily life activities.

While medical experts like healthcare professionals and researchers don’t exactly understand what causes schizophrenia, there is something very important to remember: living with schizophrenia is not anyone’s fault. No one is to blame, and there’s nothing anyone did to cause it. A good CMA would never make a resident feel bad or blame a resident for any symptoms of schizophrenia. What experts do know is that schizophrenia can be caused or triggered by a combination of factors: Someone might be at a higher risk to develop schizophrenia if it runs in their family’s genes, and/or if they have a naturally occurring imbalance of certain chemicals in the brain. This is nothing a person living with schizophrenia can control. In combination with genetic factors, schizophrenia might be triggered by exposure to certain environmental risk factors, like stress, toxins or viruses during brain development, a head injury, or use of certain types of drugs.

It has been a very long time (30 years) since a new class of drugs has been introduced to treat schizophrenia. Now a new drug promises to be a real game changer.

Cobenfy - New Drug Approved for Schizophrenia

Cobenfy (xanomeline/trospium chloride) is a medication used to treat schizophrenia in adults. It's the first new schizophrenia drug in decades and is considered a potential breakthrough for the condition.

Here's some more information about Cobenfy:

Cobenfy is thought to ease symptoms like hearing voices, hallucinations, illogical or delusional thinking, and suspiciousness.
It doesn't appear to cause side effects like weight gain, pacing, and drowsiness, which can be issues with older schizophrenia drugs.
Cobenfy is being investigated as a treatment for Alzheimer's disease psychosis, Bipolar I disorder, and Alzheimer's disease agitation.
The list price for Cobenfy is a steep $1,850 per month before insurance and rebates!
It is brand new so no generics for many years.
It is produced by Bristol Meyers Squib, and taken orally and comes in 3 strengths.
Warnings, Contraindications and SE.
COBENFY™ is contraindicated in patients with: urinary retention; moderate or severe (Child-Pugh Class B or C) hepatic impairment; gastric retention; history of hypersensitivity to COBENFY or trospium chloride—angioedema has been reported with COBENFY and trospium chloride; and untreated narrow-angle glaucoma or renal impairment, or gall bladder stones.
Cobenfy can raise the heart rate.
Cobenfy has an anticholinergic component which means that it can have some anticholinergic side effects - the big 4: I can't see, I can't pee, I can't spit, I can't Sh#t. A good CMA will keep an eye out for constipation and urinary retention for sure as well as dizziness.
The most common side effects are, nausea, dyspepsia, constipation, vomiting, hypertension, abdominal pain, tachycardia, dizziness, and gastroesophageal reflux disease.