Is Schizophrenia A Mood Disorder

Rose Hill Center Can Help You Overcome Both Disorders

While theres clearly a difference between these two disorders, it doesnt have to change where you get help. At Rose Hill Center, we understand the differences between the two. For that reason, we offer different treatment options at one location.

At Rose Hill Center, we strive to offer a variety of treatment services for mental health problems. A few of these include:

Are Bipolar Disorder And Schizophrenia Related

• Categorized Bipolar Disorder, Center for Discovery, Hallucinogens

Oftentimes, it may be difficult for professionals, let alone the general public, to differentiate between mental health disorders especially when two disorders share similar traits and genetic dispositions. This is often true for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, both are debilitating mental health disorders but with the proper treatment, symptoms can be controlled. Genetics play a large role in the development of both disorders and studies have shown that some abnormalities in the same genes may be shared by both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. In addition, it is vital to know the difference between schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder.

Bipolar disorder

Schizophrenia

Schizoaffective disorder, bipolar type

Schizoaffective disorder is a subset of schizophrenia but also includes symptoms of a mood disorder such as depression or mania however hallucinations and delusions must also be present as well. The bipolar subtype of schizoaffective disorder presents with symptoms of mania mixed with psychotic symptoms associated with schizophrenia. Since this disorder is combines symptoms for separate mental health illnesses, it is often misdiagnosed which prolongs the treatment course resulting in potential negative complications. The following is the diagnostic criteria for schizoaffective disorder, bipolar subtype:

Seeking treatment

Risk Factors For Bipolar Disorder And Schizophrenia

No one knows what causes bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. However, genetics are probably a risk factor, as both conditions likely run in families. This doesnt mean that youll definitely inherit the disorder if your parent or sibling has it. Your risk increases, however, if multiple family members have the disorder. But knowing theres a risk increases the chance of early detection and treatment.

Environmental factors may also contribute to your risk, but this connection isnt entirely understood yet.

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Disorders With Psychosis: Schizophrenia Or Something Else

Several different illnesses can be associated with psychosis. The categories are

• Substance use disorders

Schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders all involve psychosis. Other features differentiate them from each other:

Brief psychotic disorder involves the appearance of one- to three psychotic symptoms that last no more than one month Delusional disorder involves only delusions Schizophreniform disorder most closely resembles schizophrenia but differs in that schizophreniform lasts less than six months Schizoaffective disorder is a psychotic disorder with strong mood features

All of the psychotic disorders are somewhat difficult to distinguish from schizophrenia even with these symptoms, features, and criteria because people arent black-and-white like a diagnostic manual.

How Common Is Schizoaffective Disorder

Schizoaffective disorder is rare. Research estimates that 3 in every 1000 people will develop schizoaffective disorder in their lifetime.Still, its difficult to know exactly how many people have the condition because of the challenging diagnosis. People with schizoaffective disorder have symptoms of two different mental health conditions. Some people might get misdiagnosed with schizophrenia. Others might get misdiagnosed with a mood disorder.

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Who Will Manage My Treatment

There are different NHS mental health teams that can support and treat you. Health professionals from different backgrounds work in the teams shown below. They work together to help you get better.

What is an NHS Early intervention in psychosis team ?

An NHS Early intervention in psychosis team can support you if you experience psychosis for the first time.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recommends that early intervention services should be open to people of all ages.

You should be referred to the EIT without delay. Your local EIT will aim to first see you within 14 days.

You can sometimes self-refer to your local EIT. This means that you can contact them and ask for help, without first seeing your GP or another medical professional. Sometimes your family or friends can refer you too.

You should be able to find your local EIT on the internet. You can use a use a search term like NHS early intervention psychosis team Leicestershire. Or you can call NHS 111 and ask for contact details for your local team,or ask your GP to refer you.

What is an NHS community mental health team ?

A community mental health team can support you to recover from mental health issues. They can give you short or long-term care and treatment in the community. You might move from an Early intervention in psychosis team to a CMHT if you need longer term care.

You usually need to be referred to CMHT by your GP or another medical or social care professional.

How Is Schizoaffective Disorder Diagnosed

If someone is showing symptoms of schizophrenia and a mood disorder, see a healthcare provider. The provider will do a medical history and physical examination. There are no lab tests to diagnose schizoaffective disorder. But the provider may use X-rays and blood tests to rule out other illnesses that may be causing the symptoms.

If there is no physical cause for the symptoms, the provider may refer the person to a psychiatrist or psychologist. These professionals specialize in diagnosing and treating conditions tied to mental and behavioral health.

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Rehabilitation And Community Support Services

Psychosocial skill training and vocational rehabilitation programs help many patients work, shop, and care for themselves manage a household get along with others and work with mental health care practitioners.

Supported employment, in which patients are placed in a competitive work setting and provided with an on-site job coach to promote adaptation to work, may be particularly valuable. In time, the job coach acts only as a backup for problem solving or for communication with employers.

Support services enable many patients with schizophrenia to reside in the community. Although most can live independently, some require supervised apartments where a staff member is present to ensure drug adherence. Programs provide a graded level of supervision in different residential settings, ranging from 24-hour support to periodic home visits. These programs help promote patient autonomy while providing sufficient care to minimize the likelihood of relapse and need for inpatient hospitalization. Assertive community treatment programs provide services in the patients home or other residence and are based on high staff-to-patient ratios treatment teams directly provide all or nearly all required treatment services.

Cognitive remediation therapy helps some patients. This therapy is designed to improve neurocognitive function and to help patients learn or relearn how to do tasks. This therapy may enable patients to function better.

Duration Of Mood Episodes

A person who has schizoaffective disorder is likely to experience severe mood symptoms accounting for more than half of the total duration of illness.

On the other hand, a person who has schizophrenia may also experience mood episodes, but the total duration of the mood symptoms is brief compared to the duration of the psychotic symptoms.

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Cause Of Schizoaffective Disorder Is Unknown

Most mental health experts believe that schizoaffective disorder is a variation of schizophrenia, but the exact cause remains unclear. Current theory suggests that schizoaffective disorder is triggered by a range of factors working in combination including:

• genetic susceptibility
• environmental factors such as stress
• differences in brain chemical and receptor interactions.

Family Education And Support

Educational programs for family members, significant others, and friends offer instruction about schizophrenia symptoms and treatments, and strategies for assisting the person with the illness. Increasing key supporters understanding of psychotic symptoms, treatment options, and the course of recovery can lessen their distress, bolster coping and empowerment, and strengthen their capacity to offer effective assistance. Family-based services may be provided on an individual basis or through multi-family workshops and support groups. For more information about family-based services in your area, you can visit the family education and support groups page on the National Alliance on Mental Illness website.

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Schizophrenia Bipolar Disorder And The Psychosis Continuum

Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder share elements that can sometimes be difficult to distinguish. Both are characterized by psychosis, but in schizophrenia, auditory hallucinations are more common, whereas in BD, grandiosity and excitement are more prevalent. While paranoia can be present in both conditions, it is more systematic in schizophrenia. Moreover, negative symptoms and cognitive dysfunction are core psychopathologies of schizophrenia, in contrast to BD, in which mood lability and affective cycling dominate.1 These distinctions are crucial because early differential diagnosis is important for appropriate treatment.2,3

Two classifications have been used for schizophrenia and BD. The categorical classification regards BD and schizophrenia as distinct diagnoses. It was Emil Kraepelin4 who played an important role in differentiating these disorders. Kraepelin considered manic depression as an episodic illness with periods of functional recovery and dementia praecox as a degenerative persistent condition, leading to poor outcome, with negative symptoms as the primary characteristics.2

Eugen Bleuler expanded the psychological characteristics of schizophrenia to include disorganization in thought processes, but recognized affective features as existing along a continuum. Recent research suggests that schizophrenia and BD psychosis may be two ends of a continuum rather than discrete diagnostic entities, with overlap and blurred boundaries.2

First-Person Accounts

Schizophrenia: No Mood Disorder

Bipolar disorder and schizophrenia are two distinct disorders . True, many bipolar patients are misdiagnosed as having schizophrenia, and some patients have overlapping symptoms of both disorders. Many patients with schizophrenia, however, have chronic persistent psychosis and negative symptoms with no mood disorder.

Also, how can the authors say that misdiagnosing bipolar disorder as schizophrenia would unnecessarily expose patients to antipsychotics instead of needed mood stabilizers? Many atypical antipsychotics work as mood stabilizers, sometimes more effectively than lithium, divalproex, or other old standards. It sounded like the authors were turning back the clock to when many bipolar patients were misdiagnosed with schizophrenia and placed on long-term haloperidol or another conventional antipsychotic.

Anthony Green, MD

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Treatment Of Schizoaffective Disorder

Treatment includes:

• Medication: What you take depends on whether you have symptoms of depression or bipolar disorder, along with symptoms that suggest schizophrenia. The main medications that doctors prescribe for psychotic symptoms such as delusions, hallucinations, and disordered thinking are called antipsychotics. All these drugs can probably help with schizoaffective disorder, but paliperidone extended release is the only drug that the FDA has approved to treat it. For mood-related symptoms, you might take an antidepressant medication or a mood stabilizer.
• Psychotherapy: The goal of this type of counseling is to help you learn about your illness, set goals, and manage everyday problems related to the disorder. Family therapy can help families get better at relating to and helping a loved one who has schizoaffective disorder.
• Skills training: This generally focuses on work and social skills, grooming and self-care, and other day-to-day activities, including money and home management.
• Hospitalization: Psychotic episodes may require a hospital stay, especially if youâre suicidal or threaten to hurt others.
• Electroconvulsive therapy: This treatment may be an option for adults who donât respond to psychotherapy or medications. It involves sending a quick electric current through your brain. It causes a brief seizure. Doctors use it because they think it changes your brain chemistry and may reverse some conditions.

This condition may raise your risk of:

Who Is At Risk From Mental Disorders

Determinants of mental health and mental disorders include not only individual attributes such as the ability to manage one’s thoughts, emotions, behaviours and interactions with others, but also social, cultural, economic, political and environmental factors such as national policies, social protection, standards of living, working conditions, and community support.

Stress, genetics, nutrition, perinatal infections and exposure to environmental hazards are also contributing factors to mental disorders.

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Mood Vs Psychotic Symptoms

In schizophrenia, mood symptoms are not expected to occur without psychotic symptoms. The psychotic symptoms are almost always present, but the mood symptoms come and go.

In schizoaffective disorder, the psychotic symptoms may or may not be present during the times when a person is experiencing depression or mania. That said, the diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder requires that the psychotic symptoms be present for a long enough time when a person is not experiencing any serious mood symptoms.

Frequency And Ages Affected

Bipolar disorder affects approximately 2.2 percent of people in the United States. Typically, it first appears between the late teen years and early adulthood. Children can also show signs of bipolar disorder.

Schizophrenia isnt as common as bipolar disorder. It affects 1.1 percent of the U.S. population. People usually learn they have it between the ages of 16 and 30. Schizophrenia isnt usually seen in children.

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Schizophrenia And Mood Disorders

What is Schizophrenia?Types of SchizophreniaParanoid:grandeur,”Catatonic:Disorganized:RemissionUndifferentiatedCauses of SchizophreniaBiological InfluencesBiochemistry and Physiologydopamine hypothesisFamily and InteractionsMood DisordersMajor Depressive DisorderBipolar DisorderSeasonal Affective DisorderExplaining Mood DisordersSuicide and Depression

Schizoaffective Disorder Vs Schizophrenia

Schizoaffective disorder has the features of schizophrenia, like hallucinations, delusions, and disorganized thinking, along with those of a mood disorder, like mania and depression. At first, itâs often misdiagnosed as one of the two.

As a result, schizoaffective disorder treatment often pairs antipsychotics with antidepressants, while schizophrenia treatment centers on antipsychotics. Both conditions rely on therapy.

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Types Of Bipolar Disorder

Bipolar disorder has a number of types, including bipolar I and bipolar II disorder. Depending on how rapidly the mood swings occur, the episodes of bipolar disorder can also be described as having mixed features or rapid cycling features. About two-fifths of people with bipolar disorder have at least one period of rapid cycling over the course of their lifetime. For every type and duration of the illness, the sufferer experiences significant problems with his or her functioning at school, at work, socially or otherwise in their community, may need hospitalization, or may have psychotic symptoms . The diagnosis of bipolar I disorder requires that the individual has at least one manic episode but does not require a history of major depression. Bipolar II disorder is diagnosed if the person has experienced at least one episode of major depression and at least one episode of hypomania .

People with bipolar disorder or schizophrenia can expect their mental health professionals to consider several interventions, including medications, psychotherapies, and lifestyle advice. Medication treatment of bipolar disorder tends to address relieving already existing symptoms of the illness and preventing symptoms from returning. For schizophrenia, medications have been found to be effective in treating the positive symptoms .

What Are Other Types Of Psychotic Disorders

Mental disorders associated with symptoms of psychosis are known as psychotic disorders. In addition to schizophrenia, other psychotic disorders include:

• Schizoaffective disorder:Symptoms of this disorder may include hallucinations, delusions, and disorganized thinking, along with either a depressed or manic mood.
• Schizophreniform disorder:With this disorder, a person develops the symptoms of schizophrenia for a period shorter than six months.
• Delusional disorder:This describes strong, unchangeable beliefs in things that are not real or true, without experiencing hallucinations.
• Brief psychotic disorder:This describes psychotic symptoms with a sudden onset, lasting one month or less. Another episode may or may not occur in the future.
• Substance-induced psychotic disorder: This describes psychosis brought on by the use of substances such as cannabis, cocaine, ecstasy, and alcohol.
• Psychotic disorder due to a medical condition:This describes conditions such as brain tumors, brain infections, or strokes that can lead to psychotic symptoms.

Psychosis can be limited to one episode. However, it is possible to have recurring episodes as part of certain conditions.

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What Are The Symptoms Of Schizoaffective Disorder

Symptoms of schizoaffective disorder vary from one person to the next. They can range from mild to severe.

Someone with schizoaffective disorder experiences psychotic symptoms. They also experience severe mood changes, with symptoms of depression, mania or both. A person with schizoaffective disorder will have psychotic symptoms that occur alone and with mood changes.

Psychotic symptoms:

• Delusions .
• Hallucinations .
• Inability to tell real from imaginary.
• Disorganized speech .
• Unclear thinking.
• Lack of emotion in facial expression and speech.
• Poor motivation.

• Self-destructive or dangerous behavior .

Understanding The Subtle Differences

The difference between schizoaffective disorder and schizophrenia is often hard to spot. The reason is that a lot of the symptoms overlap. For example, doctors typically characterize schizoaffective disorder by the mood disorders that accompany it. However, its not uncommon for people with schizophrenia to experience manic or depressive moods as well.

If both experience mood disorders, how can specialists tell the difference? The key difference between schizoaffective disorder and schizophrenia is the prominence of the mood disorder. With schizoaffective disorder, the mood disorder is front and center. With schizophrenia, its not a dominant part of the disorder.

Another difference is the psychotic symptoms that people experience. With schizophrenia, the psychotic symptoms are dominant. With schizoaffective disorder, episodes of psychosis may occur.

However, it takes trained professionals to spot the differences between the two. After all, the symptoms typically start when people reach their 20s. Also, they can cause hallucinations and delusions.

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Key Points About Mood Disorders

• A mood disorder is a mental health class that health professionals use to broadly describe all types of depression and bipolar disorders.

• The most common types of mood disorders are major depression, dysthymia , bipolar disorder, mood disorder due to a general medical condition, and substance-induced mood disorder.

• There is no clear cause of mood disorders. Healthcare providers think they are a result of chemical imbalances in the brain. Some types of mood disorders seem to run in families, but no genes have yet been linked to them.

• In general, nearly everyone with a mood disorder has ongoing feelings of sadness, and may feel helpless, hopeless, and irritable. Without treatment, symptoms can last for weeks, months, or years, and can impact quality of life.

• Depression is most often treated with medicine, psychotherapy or cognitive behavioral therapy, family therapy, or a combination of medicine and therapy. In some cases, other therapies, such as electroconvulsive therapy and transcranial stimulation may be used.