BRIDGETON, Mo. — Last year Terry Franks received a phone call from her son that frightened her.
“He couldn’t tell me where he was. I told him, 'Take a picture,' and that’s when he took a picture of the campus that he was on,” recalled Franks.
It turns out her son was in western Kansas at Fort Hays State University where he was having a psychotic breakdown.
“Hearing things that aren’t there, seeing things that aren’t there,” said Franks. “We were trying to get him to go to the hospital and he wasn’t having it, but the police came and talked to him so he was willing to go with them.”
Eventually, Franks got her son to return to St. Louis. Eventually, he began treatment for schizophrenia at SSM Depaul Hospital. DePaul’s Behavioral Health clinic has a long action injectable program. Anti-psychotic medication is administered once a month with a shot instead of daily pills. DePaul pharmacist Danielle Moses said injectable anti-psychotic have some advantages over pills that are taken daily.
“The oral medications that you take each day you hit a peak concentration, whereas long-acting injections slowly release over the month,” said Moses. “That leads to decreased side effects. A lot of patients worry about side effects especially sedation.”
Schizophrenia can seem hopeless to families with a loved one who often refuses to take medication.
“There’s a ton of different reasons that patients decide to quit taking their medication,” said Moses. “One of the things we see most commonly is that they feel better, so they feel like they don’t need to take it anymore. In the St. Louis area it can take 120 to 180 days to get in to see a psychiatrist. That’s a huge time frame for someone who can’t get in to see someone to refill their medication so they can remain compliant.”
DePaul wants the community to know that help is available and the program is working.
“We give them free transportation within a 45-mile radius of the area. Their injection is at no cost. Their group therapy is at no cost and they get a free meal while they’re here,” said Moses. “We’ve had moms and grandmas contact us saying their lives have been completely changed because now their son or their daughter or grandson or granddaughter is who they used to be. They can interact with them again. They’re not scared of them, they’re not afraid.”
For more information about the long action injectable program, 314-344-7445.
