Related Disorders - Schizophrenia

RELATED DISORDERS

Other disorders are related to, but distinguished from, schizophrenia in terms of presenting symptoms and the duration or magnitude of impairment. The DSM-IV-TR (APA, 2000) categorizes these disorders as follows:

·    Schizophreniform disorder: The client exhibits the symp-toms of schizophrenia but for less than the 6 months necessary to meet the diagnostic criteria for schizophre-nia. Social or occupational functioning may or may not be impaired.

·    Delusional disorder: The client has one or more nonbi-zarre delusions—that is, the focus of the delusion is be-lievable. Psychosocial functioning is not markedly impaired, and behavior is not obviously odd or bizarre.

·    Brief psychotic disorder: The client experiences the sud-den onset of at least one psychotic symptom, such as delusions, hallucinations, or disorganized speech or be-havior, which lasts from 1 day to 1 month. The episode may or may not have an identifiable stressor or may fol-low childbirth.

·    Shared psychotic disorder (folie à deux): Two people share a similar delusion. The person with this diagnosis develops this delusion in the context of a close relation-ship with someone who has psychotic delusions.

Two other diagnoses, schizoid personality disorder and schizotypal personality disorder, are not psychotic disor-ders and should not be confused with schizophrenia even though the names sound similar.