Making A Diagnosis of Schizophrenia
It is important to rule out other illnesses, as sometimes people suffer
severe mental symptoms or even psychosis due to undetected underlying medical
conditions. For this reason, a medical history should be taken and a physical
examination and laboratory tests should be done to rule out other possible
causes of the symptoms before concluding that a person has schizophrenia. In
addition, since commonly abused drugs may cause symptoms resembling
schizophrenia, blood or urine samples from the person can be tested at
hospitals or physicians’ offices for the presence of these drugs.
At times, it is difficult to tell one mental disorder from another. For
instance, some people with symptoms of schizophrenia exhibit prolonged extremes of
elated or depressed mood, and it is important to determine whether such a
patient has schizophrenia or actually has a
manic-depressive (or bipolar) disorder or
major depressive disorder. Persons whose symptoms cannot be
clearly categorized are sometimes diagnosed as having a “schizoaffective
disorder.”
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