Psychotic depression vs. schizophrenia

Some of the recent brain studies and researches have observed that psychotic depression and schizophrenia are intimately related mental illnesses. These two mental disorders have similar symptoms and their chemical expressions in the brain are also similar.

Patients suffering from psychotic depression show symptoms like psychotic beliefs, hallucinations and psychosis, which are common symptoms of people who are suffering from many types of schizophrenia, also. And in these two mental disorders, family history or hereditary plays an important role in increasing the chance of developing the illness.

Psychotic depressive patients usually have the knowledge that their delusions or hallucinations are not reality whereas in people who suffer from schizophrenia believe that what they are listening or seeing is real thing. And patients with schizophrenia usually don’t experience depression necessarily, like patients with psychotic depression do.

Risk factors for schizophrenia are malnutrition during growth, substance abuse and exposure to a virus in the uterus where as the risk factors for psychotic depression are human immunodeficiency virus, abnormal functioning of thyroid, certain prescription drugs and the side effects cause by certain medications or drugs

Schizophrenia patients are generally treated with antipsychotics. For psychotic depressive patients, both antidepressants and antipsychotic medications are given to fight against both psychotic and depressive symptoms.