Question:

For this week's Forum, respond to the following: Distinguish between the positive and negative symptoms associated with a diagnosis of Schizophrenia. What symptoms are key in making the distinction among the diagnoses of Schizophrenia, Schizoaffective Disorder, and Mood Disorder with Psychotic Features?

Reply to the following response with 200 words minimum. (please make response as if having a conversation, respond directly to some of the statements in below post. This is not providing an analysis of the original post. Respectfully address it and even ask clarifying or additional questions.)

Schizophrenia is a major mental illness that has a negative impact on a person's overall well-being. It affects how a person feels, thinks, and acts; this makes decision making and relating to others a complex task. Schizophrenia consists of positive, negative, and cognitive symptoms. However Schizophrenia affects each person differently and symptoms are sporadic.

Positive symptoms are those that are "added" to normal behaviors such as: hallucinations, delusions, confusion with thoughts and speech, trouble concentrating, and repetitive movements. Negative symptoms are those behaviors that have "declined" such as: emotionless or "empty", withdrawal or hermit-like, stops conducting daily tasks such as bathing, and doesn't stay on schedule or follow through with assignments. Cognitive symptoms are those that affect memory, way of thinking, and organization.

Diagnosing someone with Schizophrenia is a very difficult task. One reason being that other events such as taking illegal drugs or illnesses can have some of the same type symptoms. Another reason is that most who have Schizophrenia are not aware that they have the disorder and this makes treatment complicated.

There is no physical or lab testing that can inform diagnosis; it takes the doctors evaluating a patient's symptoms for over six months to conclude a definite diagnosis. Also a patient needs to have two or more of the following symptoms occurring persistently: Delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech and behavior, and "negative" symptoms.

Schizoaffective Disorder is a chronic mental disorder that consists of Schizophrenia symptoms as well as mood disorder symptoms such as mania or depression. Symptoms include hallucinations, delusions, disorganized thinking, depression, and manic behaviors.

Schizoaffective disorder is often confused with Schizophrenia and Bipolar disorder due to their similar symptoms. This makes the diagnosis process a very difficult one. There are two subtypes of Schizoaffective disorder: Bipolar type and Depressive type. In order to be diagnosed with Schizoaffective disorder, a person would have to experience depression and/or mania at the same time they are experiencing symptoms of Schizophrenia, hallucinations or delusions for at least two weeks without any other mood episode, symptoms of major mood episode is present most of the time, and use of illegal drugs/prescription drugs are ruled out as a cause of symptoms.

Mood disorder with psychotic features also known as psychotic depression is an illness that consists of both depression and psychosis. It is also commonly confused with Schizoaffective disorder because of similar symptoms associated with both. The difference between the two is that a person with mood disorder with psychotic features will only experience hallucinations or delusions only when they are depressed, whereas someone with Schizoaffective disorder will continue to have hallucinations or delusions even after mood has improved.

In all three disorders, it takes a great deal of time for doctors to make a thorough and definite diagnosis by studying and evaluating a person's symptoms for over six months.

Question for the class: There has been question of whether John Nash, the Nobel-prize winning Mathematician, really had Schizophrenia. Based on the symptoms we have learned about Schizophrenia, it makes it questionable to think he could have been such as genius.

What are your thoughts? Do you think it is impossible that someone with Schizophrenia could in fact be so successful and accomplish what he did?

TEXT: Psychopathology : Foundations for a Contemporary Understanding by James E. Maddux  and Barbara A. Winstead