Dr. Roxanne Dryden-Edwards is an adult, child, and adolescent psychiatrist. She is a former Chair of the Committee on Developmental Disabilities for the American Psychiatric Association, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, and Medical Director of the National Center for Children and Families in Bethesda, Maryland.
Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD, is a U.S. board-certified Anatomic Pathologist with subspecialty training in the fields of Experimental and Molecular Pathology. Dr. Stöppler's educational background includes a BA with Highest Distinction from the University of Virginia and an MD from the University of North Carolina. She completed residency training in Anatomic Pathology at Georgetown University followed by subspecialty fellowship training in molecular diagnostics and experimental pathology.
According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), symptoms of schizophrenia include the following:
Positive, more overtly psychotic symptoms
Beliefs that have no basis in reality (delusions)
Hearing, seeing,
feeling, smelling, or tasting things that have no basis in reality
(hallucinations)
Disorganized speech
Disorganized behaviors
Catatonic
behaviors
Negative, potentially less overtly psychotic symptoms
Inhibition of facial expressions
Lack of speech
Lack of motivation
How is schizophrenia diagnosed?
As is true with virtually any mental-health diagnosis, there is no one test
that definitively indicates that someone has schizophrenia. Therefore, health-care practitioners diagnose this disorder by gathering comprehensive medical,
family, and mental-health information. Patients tend to benefit when the
professional takes into account their client's entire life and background. This
includes but is not limited to the person's gender, sexual orientation,
cultural, religious and ethnic background, and socioeconomic status. The symptom sufferer might be asked to fill out a self-test that the professional will review if the person being evaluated is able to complete it. The practitioner
will also either perform a physical examination or request that the individual's
primary-care doctor perform one. The medical examination will usually include
lab tests to evaluate the person's general health and to explore whether or not
the individual has a medical condition that might produce psychological
symptoms.
In asking questions about mental-health symptoms, mental-health professionals
are often exploring if the individual suffers from hallucinations or delusions,
depression and/or manic symptoms, anxiety, substance abuse, as well as some
personality disorders (for example, schizotypal personality disorder) and developmental
disorders (for example, autism spectrum disorders). Since some of the symptoms of
schizophrenia can also occur in other mental illnesses, the mental-health
screening is to determine if the individual suffers from schizoaffective
disorder or other psychotic disorder, depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder, or
a substance-abuse or personality disorder. Any disorder that is associated with
bizarre behavior, mood, or thinking, like borderline personality disorder or
another psychotic disorder, as well as dissociative identity disorder (DID),
also known as multiple personality disorder (MPD) may be particularly
challenging to distinguish from schizophrenia. In order to assess the person's
current emotional state, health-care providers perform a mental-status
examination as well.
In addition to providing treatment that is appropriate to the diagnosis,
determining the presence of mental illnesses that may co-occur (be comorbid)
with schizophrenia is important in improving the life of individuals with
schizophrenia. For example, people with schizophrenia are at increased risk of
having a substance-abuse, depressive, or anxiety disorder and of committing suicide.
Depression is an illness that involves the body, mood, and thoughts and affects the way a person eats and sleeps, the way one feels about oneself, and the way one thinks about things. The principal types of depression are major depression, dysthymia, and bipolar disease (also called manic-depressive disease).
Alcoholism is a disease that includes alcohol craving and continued drinking despite repeated alcohol-related problems, such as losing a job or getting into trouble with the law.
Suicide is the process of intentionally ending one's own life. Approximately 1 million people worldwide commit suicide each year, and 10 million to 20 million attempt suicide annually.
Bipolar disorder (or manic depression) is a mental illness characterized by depression, mania, and severe mood swings. Treatment may incorporate mood stabilizer medications, antidepressants, and psychotherapy.
Dissociative identity disorder (formerly known as multiple personality disorder or split personality disorder) is a mental illness in which a person has at least two distinct personalities. Symptoms and signs include lapses in memory, feeling unreal, blackouts in time, hearing voices in their head that are not their own, not recognizing themselves in the mirror, and finding items in one's possession but not recalling how they were acquired. Treatment usually involves psychotherapy, medications, and sometimes hypnosis.
Drug addiction is a chronic disease that causes drug-seeking behavior and drug use despite negative consequences to the user and those around him. Though the initial decision to use drugs is voluntary, changes in the brain caused by repeated drug abuse can affect a person's self-control and ability to make the right decisions and increase the urge to take drugs. Drug abuse and addiction are preventable.
Antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) has many symptoms, signs, and causes. Therapy is one treatment option for antisocial personality disorder. It is closely related to other personality disorders (PD), such as borderline personality disorder and narcissistic personality disorder.
Psychotic disorders are a group of serious illnesses that affect the mind. Different types of psychotic disorders include schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, schizophreniform disorder, brief psychotic disorder, shared psychotic disorder, delusional disorder, substance-induced psychotic disorder, paraphrenia, and psychotic disorders due to medical conditions.
Schizoaffective disorder is a mental illness that features schizophrenia and a mood disorder, either major depression or bipolar disorder. Symptoms include agitation, suicidal thoughts, little need for sleep, delusions, hallucinations, and poor motivation. Treatment may involve psychotherapy, medication, skills training, or hospitalization.
Mental illness is any disease or condition affecting the brain that influence the way a person thinks, feels, behaves, and/or relates to others. Mental illness is caused by heredity, biology, psychological trauma and environmental stressors.
Compulsive gambling is a disorder that affects millions in the U.S. Symptoms and signs include a preoccupation with gambling, lying to family or loved ones to hide gambling, committing crimes to finance gambling, and risking importance relationships and employment due to gambling. Treatment may incorporate participation in Gamblers' Anonymous, psychotherapy, and medications like carbamazepine, topiramate, lithium, naltrexone, antidepressants, clomipramine, and fluvoxamine.
About 5 million children and adolescents in the U.S. suffer from a serious mental illness such as eating disorders, anxiety disorders, disruptive behavior disorders, pervasive development disorders, elimination disorders, learning disorders, schizophrenia, tic disorders, and mood disorders. Symptoms of mental illness include frequent outbursts of anger, hyperactivity, fear of gaining weight, excessive worrying, frequent temper tantrums, and hearing voices that aren't there. Treatment may involve medication, psychotherapy, and creative therapies.
Brief psychotic disorder is a short-term mental illness that features psychotic symptoms. There are three forms of brief psychotic disorder. The first occurs shortly after a major stress, the second has no apparent trauma that triggers the illness, and the third is associated with postpartum onset. Symptoms include hallucinations, delusions, unusual behavior, disorientation, changes in eating and sleeping, and speech that doesn't make sense. Treatment typically involves medication and psychotherapy.
Factitious disorders are conditions in which people pretend to have physical or mental illnesses when they aren't sick. These people may lie about or fake symptoms to obtain the sympathy and attention given to people who are genuinely ill. Symptoms of factitious disorders include dramatic, inconsistent medical history, the presence of many surgical scars, and a history of seeking treatment at many different hospitals.
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