Bipolar Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder have long been treated as two separate disorders but in reality, they are so similar that “Bipolar Schizophrenia” may be a more appropriate term. 

Bipolar Schizophrenia Symptoms

Bipolar Schizophrenia patients often experience similar delusions and hallucinations on a chronic basis. They have the same cyclic episodes of depression and mania plus distractibility, poor judgment and impulsivity. Bipolar Schizophrenia causes are also similar, running in families and resulting from problems with neurotransmitters in the brain. Bipolar Schizophrenia patients often need separate medications for both manic and depressive symptoms.

Bipolar Schizophrenia Triggers

Both diseases are often triggered by stress, showing further connections for bipolar schizophrenia disorders. In fact, some experts believe that bipolar patients with psychotic symptoms should be categorized as schizophrenic. Someday, bipolar schizophrenia may become a diagnosis in itself. 

Some researchers believe that bipolar schizophrenia disorders come from the same causes but develop differently according to the patient’s brain development. In children with a propensity for bipolar schizophrenia, only those with mental impairment will go on the develop schizophrenia. Without mental impairment, the disease develops into bipolar disorder.

Bipolar Schizophrenia Medications

Both Haldol and Trilafon are oral medications used to treat bipolar schizophrenia. These medicines help patients to deal most commonly with the manic aspects of these disorders, such as nervousness, anxiety and aggression. Trilafon can help with hallucinations in bipolar schizophrenia as well. Perphanazine is often used to restore the balance of chemicals in the brain. Another medication, Geodon, is also used for bipolar schizophrenia diseases.

Bipolar Schizophrenia Dangers

Bipolar schizophrenia patients are both more likely to commit suicide and become dependent on drugs and alcohol. The social interactions of bipolar schizophrenia patients are severely impaired due to delusions and hallucinations. Anxiety is a big problem for both disorders. Bipolar schizophrenia patients also have difficulty maintaining treatment regiments. During manic moods, they feel so good that they often stop taking medications that help with depressive moods.

Medical Basis for Bipolar Schizophrenia

Molecular genetic studies show a genetic overlap for bipolar schizophrenia disorders as well. This challenges the idea that these are separate and distinct diseases. While most doctors believe they are separate and distinct, they are so similar that bipolar schizophrenia may just be different extremes of the same disorder.

Brain scans in patients with bipolar schizophrenia, carrying a particular genetic mutation showed that particular areas of the brain had communication problems. Magnetic resonance topography was used to show how different areas of the brain communicated with one another. The subjects were healthy patients with no actual bipolar schizophrenia symptoms.

 Those with a high-risk genetic variant were seen to have problems communicating with parts of the brain involving working memory and other cerebral functions. The communications between the two hemispheres of the brain were impaired. In addition, these bipolar schizophrenia prone patients had a better link with parts of the brain like the amygdala, which is related to how we respond to fear and the fight-or-flight reflex. All of these problems are also seen in patients with bipolar schizophrenia disorders. Take the Goldberg bipolar test to gage the severity of your condition.