Can someone have both schizophrenia and depression?
Schizophrenia and depression are both two complex mental health disorders that oftentimes occur at the same time. Some of the most recent research showed that depression is one of the top three common conditions in people who already have schizophrenia. If you think you’re experiencing symptoms of both depression and psychosis, then it could be one of these things:
- It could be schizophrenia with depressive symptoms or even an episode. As a matter of fact, up to 80% of people who suffer from schizophrenia have at least one depressive episode in some of the earliest stages of this disorder.
- It could be schizophrenia and a co-occurring depressive disorder, as up to 40% of patients with schizophrenia also suffer from a co-occurring depressive disorder.
- Some of the most difficult and negative symptoms of schizophrenia might look similar to depressive symptoms. In fact, it could be a bit hard to make the difference between negative symptoms of schizophrenia and depressive symptoms, as they’re not that different. Some experts out there would even suggest that occurring depressive symptoms should definitely be included in schizophrenia criteria.
- It could be the case of a schizoaffective disorder. What do we mean by that? Well, people who suffer from consistent symptoms of schizophrenia and a mood disorder at the same time might be eventually diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder.
- It could even be a psychotic depression. People with significant depression symptoms are at risk of developing psychotic symptoms, which could later look similar to the positive symptoms of schizophrenia.
It’s also worth noting that there’s a consistent difference between schizophrenia and psychosis. Even if psychosis is one of the most relevant features of schizophrenia, it might occur in other disorders as well.
