What is the difference between schizophrenia and bipolar disorder?
Schizophrenia is a psychotic disorder- bipolar disorder is a mood disorder. Bipolar disorder and schizophrenia share some symptoms,but in reality are very different. When my ex partner Ivan got extremely sick in 1994 and was committed to the hospital in a manic/psychotic episode,the first step was to rule out schizophrenia as they look so similar when the symptoms are full blown. Schizophrenia is characterized by chronic psychotic symptoms whereas the psychosis in bipolar disorder is episodic.
Of course the duration of psychosis can vary in both. When a person has bipolar disorder along with chronic,stand alone psychosis,the illness is called schizoaffective disorder. Psychosis comes in two basic forms- hallucinations and delusions. Hallucinations include seeing,feeling,smelling or hearing something that isn’t there. I’ve had a lot of hallucinations over the years to seeing rats run around chairs,hearing voices that tell [ Read More ]
I have bipolar 1 + schizoeffective disorder. I am taking Resperidone 1 mg twice a day and Lamictal 50mg at night,which has somewhat worked to help stop my delusions about being a secret agent,cops spying on me bugging the house,but i almost to the point where the medicine isn’t going to keep on working at this dosage. I am already slowed down enough during my day because of the medicine. But I am still hearing things and smelling and seeing things that aren’t there. For instance the other night I swore I had seen a cat outside and I took a second look and there was no cat. I heard someone or thing banging on my window,but there was no one there. I am wondering if I should just get a higher dosage of Resperidone or go to something else.
I just received the following question from Kimbriel,
Julie,I thought that people w/ Bipolar II don’t get psychotic? Or did you have a psychotic depression?
Hi Kimbriel,
Believe it or not,I’m writing an article on psychosis right now. People with bipolar II can defintely get psychotic. I’ve had psychotic symptoms since age 19. Mine are always with depression –as it’s rare for someone with bipolar II to have psychosis with hypomania.
The difference is in intensity- people with bipolar I have full blown psychosis –usually with mania. In fact,70% of people with full blown mania have full blown psychosis at the same time. This is when most people have to go to the hopsital and often have to be committed by a family member!
I will let everyone know when the psychosis article is ready. It’s for healthyplace.com.
Julie,I love these blogs but I have an 8yr old girl with bipolar disorder and everything is about adults. Her anger just gets worse and worse and I don’t know how to teach her the stuff i read from you. the hcp has her on depakote and risperidal,please tell my wife and I how we can help her. I feel so bad that she has to feel this way.
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I will answer this question either tonight of tomorrow. I thought I had time right now,but I am off to a meeting to interview a potential speaker for the Latino Mental Health event that my friend Gayathri Ramprasad is doing here in Portland,Oregon.
The childhood bipolar questions are so important and I want to give this a lot of thought before I answer.
UPDATE:I have not forgotten this question- I have just been in [ Read More ]
I have a friend who has done everything possible to help his son find a diagnosis. The recent diagnosis was bipolar disorder. His son lived in a treatment facility for a year,went to a special camp in the country,learned more effective communication techniques and truly tried hard to fit in with his family. I have been amazed at how hard my friend and his partner have worked to find out what is happening to their child. The bipolar disorder diagnosis was a catch all- as it often is. It’s not that the diagnosis was wrong,it’s just that it was so vague.
Finally,some answers:My friend just wrote and said that his son has a new diagnosis that makes more sense. It’s called Pervasive Developmental Disorder. Here is what I just read in Wikipedia:**
The diagnostic category pervasive developmental disorders (PDD),as opposed to specific developmental disorders (SDD),refers to a [ Read More ]
The following is a copy of an excellent WEB MD article on bipolar disorder diagnosis in children.When people ask me about childhood onset bipolar disorder,I always have the same answer:I believe that what we call bipolar disorder in children is VERY different than what we consider bipolar disorder in adults.
One of the main differences is the level of anger,irritation,tolerance levels and duration of screaming,crying,and out of control mood swings. Another very imporant distinction is the ADHD behavior of these kids. They have more of the hyperactivity part of the ADHD than adults who are usually diagnosed with ADD.My heart goes out to these kids as I know they have a lot of troubling symptoms,but like many people in this industry- I question these bipolar disorder diagnoses.
This is a looonnnggg article- which is why I’ve put it in two posts,but the information is extremely helpful. It’s [ Read More ]
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