One of the common problems among those diagnosed with BPD and schizophrenia is the difficulty of properly handling the responsibilities of daily life. Often this is the result of difficulties handling demanding situations. Many studies show that reducing stress will help people control their condition. It is therefore important to understand how stress could cause symptoms of both disorders.
Study Design
The Clinical Antipsychotic Trials of Intervention Effectiveness (CATIE) study examined second-generation antipsychotics for schizophrenia. Three atypical drugs—olanzapine, risperidone, and ariprazole—were tested using a multi-level input and feedback design.
Included in the study were patients who fulfilled the age criteria and had a main diagnosis of schizophrenia. Two-thirds of the subjects also suffered with concomitant physical illnesses. This covered mood disorders, various mental health illnesses, and substance abuse.
Recruiting across 57 sites, CATIE registered 1,493 schizophrenic patients. Each was assigned one of the atypical medications at random. Before the last evaluation, some of the subjects withdrew. There were recorded a 70% dropout rate. Furthermore excluded were several of the participants for significant contraindications.
A longitudinal measuring design was based on the Positive and Negative Symptom Scale, or PANSS. Every person’s PANSS total score came from beginning of the study, following three weeks, and following twenty-four weeks.
Methods Used
Common mental diseases are schizophrenia-spectrum diseases (SSD) and borderline personality disorder (BPD). Both get treatment at specialist centers. Still, few research have focused on psychotic reaction. The present work assessed in patients with BPD and schizophrenia the frequency of numerous modalities of psychotic reaction.
According to the study, a good number of BPD sufferers fit criteria for schizophrenia-spectrum psychopathology. Current studies on DSM-IV BPD psychopathology support this conclusion.
The writers also noted that among BPD sufferers, true and quasi-psychotic thought is rather common. Long-lasting unusual or broad symptoms identify true psychotic thought. Among these symptoms are atypical and schizotypal psychotic ones.
By contrast, among those with schizophrenia, semi-psychotic ideas are more common. Semi-psychotic thought is distinguished by shorter lasting symptoms.
In both groups, non-delusional paranoia also was rather common. The writers propose that variations in interpersonal functioning could be the reason behind the frequency of certain symptoms.
Results
This study contrasted BPD with other personality disorders as well as schizophrenia. We evaluated several cognitive and functional aspects of both these two diseases.
Among other results, we found that BPD sufferers displayed fewer severe symptoms. On other cognitive tests, they also fared better than healthy controls. The conclusions of this investigation support the hypothesis that BPD and schizophrenia have commonalities.
Patients with BPD showed a great frequency of quasi-psychotic ideas. The definition of this phenomena is unusual, though odd, psychotic symptoms.
Fascinatingly, BPD sufferers scored higher mean on a scale of suicide probability. Their RMET (Revised Mental Emotion Test) scores clearly correlated their marks on this scale.
For BPD, the authors suggested that this phenomena was “virtually pathognomic”. This makes it imperative to look at the relationship between these symptoms and the possibility of suicidal conduct.
Zanarini and associates investigated the frequency of many BPD-relevant events in a sample of individuals diagnosed with BPD in order to evaluate this theory. In the framework of BPD and other personality disorders, they examined the frequency of quasi-psychotic ideas as well as other psychotic-related notions.
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Discussion
While decreased social functioning is a commonality between borderline personality disorder and schizophrenia-spectrum illnesses, opinions on the psychotic symptoms included in each diagnosis are not clear-cut. A few studies have indicated high rates of psychotic symptoms in BPD, whereas others have showed less rates. As such, the two illnesses are typically treated in very specialized facilities.
The authors of one study assessed the cognitive traits of BPD and schizophrenic patients. These diseases were compared in three clinical groups. The BPD group displayed regular transitory, non-delusional psychotic episodes. These comprised general symptoms, strange ones, and frequent semi-psychotic ideas.
Another study looked at how cognitively different people with BPD and schizophrenia were from healthy controls. Though patients with BPD scored better, the two groups’ general cognitive function was rather similar. The sex ratio varied in every group, though, not being equal. In the SC group, women were rather more prevalent.
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