Psychosis Related Symptoms, Research Paper Example

By reading through DSM-5, it is clear that psychosis-related symptoms are not always indicators of schizophrenia, as psychosis is not a prerequisite for having the condition of schizophrenia. Psychosis occurs when an individual has a break with reality, and it is often interchangeable with a psychotic episode in which a patient hears voices, suffers from delusions because they see or hear things that are not real, and paranoia. It is not necessarily a mental health disorder, as some individuals experience psychosis when they suffer disorders rendered psychotic-based, including schizophrenia. People often obscure psychosis with a psychotic disorder that remains unspecified (NOS). Psychotic disorder NOS refers to a generalized disorder that physicians diagnose patients who have had a psychotic episode but fail to meet the other criteria for a vast array of psychotic based disorders including schizophrenia. In order to be diagnosed with schizophrenia, a patient must have had more than one psychotic episode, in addition to other symptoms within a 6-month period (APA, 2013). Moreover, there has to be one-month period of active-phase symptoms such as hallucinations, disorganized speech, delusions, catatonic behavior, and negative symptoms including avolition and diminished emotional expression, according to the Diagnostic Criteria V-A (APA, 2013, p. 99). In addition, according to criterion V-D, the patient has to have already been ruled out for schizoaffective disorder and depressive or bipolar disorder with psychotic features or psychotic episodes because there have been no major depressive or manic episodes with the active-phase symptoms and/or if mood episodes have manifested during active-phase symptoms, but they have only been present for a small part of the residual and active periods of the malady (APA, 2013, p. 99). Thus, psychosis and schizophrenia are not  mutually inclusive medical conditions. Alternative diagnosis could include bipolar disorder with psychosis, delusional disorder, schizotypal, and brief psychotic.

References

APA. (2013). Diagnostic And Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fifth Edition Dsm-5