Why would someone with a severe mental illness refuse treatment?
At least 40% of the 4.5 million people in the United States who are diagnosed with either schizophrenia or manic-depression, the two severest forms of mental illness, do not and cannot realize they are sick because the illness affects their brain’s frontal-lobe function, which is necessary to make that determination. Because they do not know they are sick, they refuse medication and often deteriorate. The neurological term for this is “anosognosia,” derived from the Greek for “loss of knowledge.” More …
At least 40% of the 4.5 million people in the United States who are diagnosed with either schizophrenia or manic-depression, the two severest forms of mental illness, do not and cannot realize they are sick because the illness affects their brain’s frontal-lobe function, which is necessary to make that determination. Because they do not know they are sick, they refuse medication and often deteriorate.
