The image that society has of psychosis, in general, and of schizophrenia, in particular, as a mental disorder comes from the most visible characteristic of these conditions. This characteristic corresponds to the disconnection with reality that occurs in psychotic disorders, including schizophrenia. In order to understand the differences between psychosis and schizophrenia, we must previously keep in mind the definition, symptoms, causes, origin and course of both. In this Psychology-Online article, we tell you what psychosis is, its causes and symptoms, also what schizophrenia is, its causes and symptoms. Finally, we explain the main points in which psychosis differs from schizophrenia.
What is psychosis?
Psychosis was the disorder that aroused the most interest in the 19th century, born as . Psychosis is known as the set of symptoms that produce the person is not able to distinguish reality of fantasy, thus losing contact with reality. The person is not aware of the illness, a factor that is a challenge for all Mental Health professionals to treat it, since the person must be aware to be able to work with the illness.
Psychosis entails an altered perception of reality, that is, reality is not perceived and does not live the same as others. The unreality in which people who suffer from it live generates anxiety and nervousness, which causes them to be in a state of vigilance towards their environment, causing them to have difficulties in the different areas of their life.
Causes of psychosis
The causes of psychotic symptoms can be very different. Psychosis can occur:
- Due to substance or drug consumption
- Due to previous diseases such as multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, among others
- As a consequence of psychosocial stress
- As a symptom of certain disorders such as schizophrenia
Symptoms of psychosis
To understand the psychotic experience, it is necessary to classify the main symptoms it produces. The symptoms of psychosis are:
- confused thoughts: the most common thoughts become confusing or the person stops establishing logical associations between different thoughts. There is difficulty understanding their dialogue, sometimes being a meaningless dialogue. On the other hand, understanding is not only produced by the people who listen to the dialogue, but also by themselves, sometimes finding it difficult to follow the thread of the conversations, concentrate or remember things.
- delusional ideas: unrealistic beliefs, although they might sometimes make sense, are not real. They are strongly rooted, because for the patient they are perceived as totally true. Delusions are caused by the inability to separate real experiences from unreal ones.
- Hallucinations: to perceive with the senses something that is not really there. Hallucinations can occur in any sense: it can be seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting or noticing something. Hearing voices is the most common hallucination.
- Affective and perceptual changes: Sometimes, the person experiences a change in the way they feel. Also common are . Or, it seems that their emotions lose intensity, also showing fewer emotions to those around them.
- Behavior changes: People who have suffered psychosis present behaviors that are different from those they are used to having. In many cases, these behaviors are associated with the delirium that the person is having.
In the DSM-V, psychotic disorders are delusional disorder, brief psychotic disorder or psychotic break, schizophreniform disorder, schizophrenia, catatonia, and psychotic disorder induced by substance, medication, or illness.
Here you can find more information about the .
What is schizophrenia?
Schizophrenia is a serious mental illness from the group of psychotic disorders, being the most representative of these. Schizophrenic disorder usually manifests itself in adolescence or early adulthood. Schizophrenia can begin suddenly or gradually and the symptoms can improve or be chronic to different degrees, managed with antipsychotics. Many patients experience periods of improvement when they have only minor symptoms and periods of worsening when symptoms become severe. However, even if periods of improvement occur, for a diagnosis of schizophrenia to be established, ongoing signs of the disorder must persist for a minimum of six months and this period must include at least one month of symptoms. There are different subtypes of schizophrenia, including paranoid schizophrenia.
Causes of schizophrenia
Finally, it is worth highlighting the triggering cause, which would be genetic predisposition and environmental factors and detail that it cannot be directly due to a disease or drug(s).
Symptoms of schizophrenia
Below are the symptoms determined for . In schizophrenia, positive and negative symptoms can be differentiated.
Positive symptoms of schizophrenia
The positive symptoms are the psychotic behavior of the disorder, which includes delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech or thinking, and disorganized or catatonic behavior.
- Delusions: unreal thoughts. For the patient they are perceived as totally true.
- Hallucinations: to perceive with the senses something that is not really there. Hallucinations can occur in any sense: it can be seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting or noticing something. Hearing voices is the most common hallucination.
- Disorganized thoughts: They consist of making disorganized associations of thoughts due to the impairment of logical reasoning.
- Disorganized or catatonic behavior: Disorganized behavior is associated with high agitation, inability to organize, making goal-directed behavior difficult (making daily activities difficult). On the other hand, catatonic behavior entails a decrease in mental and motor activity, which can lead to a total lack of attention and rigidity.
Negative symptoms of schizophrenia
Negative symptoms are related to an emotional, motivational or social deficit. These can be experienced painfully by the environment, since they imply a loss of interest or initiative, emotional sensitivity, social interaction…, which can cause emotional and social isolation of the person and can cause anxiety and depression. The negative symptoms that occur in schizophrenia are affective flattening, alogia and abulia or apathy and, in some cases, emotional and social isolation may occur.
- Affective flattening: it is the null reaction to emotional stimuli, resulting in a reduction in the intensity of emotional expression.
- Alogia: poverty of speech, including a decrease in fluency of speech.
- Abulia or apathy: lack of will, inability to persist or to start an activity. Feelings of emptiness may occur.
For more information about this disorder, it can be found here.
Differences between psychosis and schizophrenia
Once psychosis and schizophrenic disorder are understood, we are going to briefly detail all the differences between psychosis and schizophrenia, even though they are two closely associated concepts.
1. One is inside the other
If we understand psychosis as the set of psychotic disorders that reproduce this set of symptoms of loss of contact with reality, schizophrenia is a disorder that occurs within the group of psychotic disorders. Therefore, the first of the differences between psychosis and schizophrenia is that schizophrenia is within psychosis.
2. Negative symptoms
Although the most representative symptoms of schizophrenia Whether the symptoms are positive, this presents negative symptoms that do not occur in psychosis. It is true that the psychotic state can produce changes in mood and behavior, but these changes occur when the person is disconnected from reality and connected to delirium and/or hallucination. On the other hand, in schizophrenia the emotional and behavioral state is maintained, even in periods of improvement with the absence of symptoms.
3. Duration of episodes
Another difference between psychosis and schizophrenia is the duration of the manifestation of symptoms. In psychosis episodes are short-lived, which can be seconds or a maximum of a few minutes. Against, schizophrenia requires that the set of symptoms be present in periods long lastingup to one consecutive month.
4. The cause
Another difference between psychosis and schizophrenia is the trigger. Although the manifestation of the symptoms of both can be due to a brain injury, a genetic origin or a social origin, in psychosis the trigger of the symptoms could be also due to substance usediseases such as dementia, medication consumption…, while schizophrenic disorder would be ruled out if the symptoms were due to these triggers.
5. Psychopathological disorder
Schizophrenia is in itself a psychopathological disorder, which stands out for the psychotic symptoms it presents. However, the appearance of psychotic symptoms is not an indication of a mental disorder, since psychotic symptoms can appear, as detailed above, after substance abuse, an illness…, which does not indicate a mental disorder, but a symptom produced due to these circumstances.
This article is merely informative, at Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
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Bibliography
- Alanen, I (2003). SCHIZOPHRENIA. Its Origins and its Treatment Adapted to the Patient’s Needs. H. Karnak Ltd: London.
- National Institute of Mental Health. (2015). SCHIZOPHRENIA.
- The British Psychological Society. (2015) Understanding psychosis and schizophrenia.