misdiagnosis of schizophrenia
akbar yudit
paranoid type schizophrenia it is always one of persecution, or the belief
that the individual may have, in which people or other creative entities are
trying to hurt her/him. and all delusions follow this common theme, the
cluster A diagnosis you mention are really sort of components of this
phenominon.
People are considering a new class of schizophrenia, or drug-induced
schizophrenia, but generally a co-occurring illness has to be treated from a
chemical dependancy perspective first.
at least, thats what they teach you in school.
I was actually misdiagnosed for a number of years as a schizo-affective
person because I would have states of mania, but often states of mania are
not uncommon in paranoid type schizophrenia. Also I have depression which
occaisionally goes into remission. Its pretty tricky, but no hyper-manic
states were evident during my 60-day stay in the hospital, half of which
with no meds. So yes misdiagnosis is common with other schizophreniform
illnesses.
However, considering personality disorders to be a viable mental illness
compared to the severity of schizophrenia is highly inacurate, as
personality disorders ought not be considered legally viable.
Every person has some range of psychosis when under duress, or when
regressing traumatic events as in PTSD. But the factors involved in
determining the severity of psychosis often should include the determination
a central theme, which is highly indicative of the symptoms present.
Any comments about the consideration of personality disorders to be legally
viable? as I think it is interesting how many persons are incarcerated and
have been diagnosed with personality disorders.
I do not necessarily mean Axis II disorders, (personality disorders as a
definition) some reconsideration of the Axis II definition may be necessary
someday, as the patterns which we've identified such as schizotypal
personality disorder are often comorbid and may exist in any psychology
regardless of the presence of severe and persistant mental illness deemed to
be an Axis II illness and do not always present positive symptoms as in Axis
I diagnosis. Its interesting the multiaxial assessment system should be used
to consider these templates for human personality and behavior such as the
cluster A disorders mentioned in the previous post. The question remains
whether a person with narcissistic personality disorder shouldbe allowed
hospitalization at trial, he would certainly think he did not deserve
prison, would he not? But there seems to be a lack of precedent at least in
mainstream media about the use of personality disorders as a defense at
trial, one day these things may need to be reasessed, you see.
As a counter argument radiology has been used before to prove mental
illness, I do not believe these cluster A diagnosis are also indicated in
positron emissions scans. thoughts?
Hannibal
full of specialized language. The bulk of posters here are
schizophrenics rather than schizophrenia treatment specialists (such as
psychiatrists). People with sz vary widely in level of education and
articulateness, but I haven't seen anyone here who is a trained mental
health professional except one fellow, who is a psychologist.
My sz symptoms have come in two types: (1) in 1991, false memories of
being very young and doing terrible things to people; (2) in 1996,
silent voices and images in my mind, with a definite persecution or at
least exploitation pattern. My problem with these experiences has never
been the experiences themselves, but the way they impact my ability to
function in everyday life. They both robbed me of all concetration, the
ability to make decisions rationally, the ability to hold down a job,
and toward the end of the 1996 experience, the ability to eat and use
the bathroom in peace. I have been severely depressed only once, and I
slept it off, and I have never been manic. Just 12 mg of Perphenazine
and later, 4.5 mg of Risperdal each day have done the trick for me,
although the Risperdal did cause rabbit mouth that I take 200 AU of
Vitamin E for.
I believe that schizophrenia has completely unknown causes and modes of
operation. No one in the mental health field has a clue as to what
causes it or how it works inside the human brain or mind. The
medications prescribed for it are loathsome poisons that do the job, for
me at least, for completely unknown reasons and at God knows what
long-term price. I already have lapses in short-term memory after
taking Risperdal for only six years. So frankly, the entire mental
health profession should be ashamed of itself for pretending that it
knows what it's doing when it plainly doesn't.
Hannibal