Can Psychotic Depression Lead to Schizophrenia? What Can You Do About It Now?
When someone’s depression is severe, they can experience symptoms of psychosis—much like those connected with schizophrenia. But major depression and schizophrenia are two distinct disorders that require distinct treatment paths. If your loved one is experiencing psychotic symptoms, you can help them to connect with urgent clinical care for an accurate diagnosis to light the right path toward recovery.
Psychosis and schizophrenia are not synonymous. Psychosis refers to a specific set of symptoms, whereas, schizophrenia refers to a mental health disorder. While schizophrenia includes symptoms of psychosis, not all psychotic episodes are related to the incidence of schizophrenia. There are many other psychological and medical disorders that can also result in psychotic symptoms, which include disorganized and delusional thinking, hallucinations, paranoia, and catatonia.
Depression is one disorder that can result in psychotic episodes, especially when one is not receiving professional care and treatment. While it’s possible for someone to have a mood disorder at the same time as a psychotic disorder, depressive disorders are distinct from schizophrenia. The question of whether psychotic depression can lead to schizophrenia calls for careful consideration. Although psychotic depression itself cannot evolve into schizophrenia, when severe depression is untreated or undertreated, it’s possible for the resulting distress and side effects to trigger an underlying psychotic disorder, such as schizoaffective disorder. Each person needs a careful clinical assessment and diagnosis to pave the way for individualized treatment and to prevent further mental health decline.
Can Psychotic Depression Lead to More Complications, Such as Schizophrenia?
As we’ve explored already, depression is a disorder of a different kind and category than schizophrenia. This means that depression does not ultimately evolve into schizophrenia. But there are overlaps in symptoms and side effects with the two disorders, and it is possible for someone to have both disorders at once. When someone has co-occurring depression and schizophrenia, it has a unique diagnosis: schizoaffective disorder. This dual diagnosis is important because it informs the level of integrated treatment someone needs.
Even without the occurrence of a psychotic disorder, when depression is particularly severe, it is possible for a person to experience distortions in their reality, including psychotic symptoms. An important difference is that someone with schizophrenia who experiences a psychotic episode inherently believes that their delusions or hallucinations are part of reality; someone who experiences a psychotic episode in connection with severe depression often has a better grip on their actual reality and can clue into the discrepancies there.
This understanding of the disconnect between what they are perceiving and the reality they know does not necessarily diminish their distress and confusion. On the contrary, this awareness can bring its own overwhelming complications. It can add to a person’s anxiety and their feelings of shame, unworthiness, hopelessness, and lack of confidence.
Furthermore, when delusions and hallucinations occur with depression, the beliefs, visions, or voices often reinforce a person’s negative feelings of worthlessness and guilt, as well as the urges to harm oneself. Without proper attention and treatment, these side effects can become a very slippery slope since psychosis can heighten depressed thoughts and feelings, and more severe depressive symptoms increase the risks of more psychotic episodes.
Major depression with psychotic features can also provoke:
- Persistent worries, fears, and anxiety
- Insomnia and other sleep disturbances
- A difficulty with focus and concentration
- False beliefs and hallucinations that go beyond one’s depressive inclinations
- Substance abuse
- Social withdrawal and isolation
- Mistrust of others
- Emotional outbursts and instability
- Disconnection from one’s emotions
- Major challenges in work, school, relationships, and other responsibilities
Begin Your Recovery Journey Today.
619-466-0547How Can You Discover Solutions and Prevent Additional Mental Health Problems?
While it is true that major depression with psychotic features is a disorder distinct from schizophrenia, that doesn’t mean it is an easy line to draw. It can be very challenging to pinpoint the cause or causes of psychotic symptoms. And with schizoaffective disorder, that line disappears. Only an experienced psychiatrist can determine a reliable diagnosis and then steer someone in the direction of proper, personalized treatment. A clinician will work to rule out possible causes of psychosis, which could include other mood disorders, some infectious diseases, other serious medical conditions, certain medications and drugs, and past trauma, among other factors.
If someone you care about is experiencing psychotic symptoms, it’s important that they receive urgent professional attention. The sooner they can be evaluated and treated, the better are their chances of recovery, and the less cognitive and emotional damage will result from these destructive symptoms.
What Can You Do Now?
It is never too soon to get help for serious mental health disorders. So, find a depression rehab center now, and learn more about the risks and the treatment options available. Especially when your loved one is experiencing psychotic symptoms, it may be very difficult for them to take responsibility for the next steps toward their recovery. They need your compassion and your support. But you don’t have to face this journey alone.
https://www.brightquest.com/blog/can-psychotic-depression-lead-to-schizophrenia-what-can-you-do-about-it-now/ Contact us to learn more about our renowned program and how we can help you or your loved one start the journey toward recovery.
