Schizophrenia and Asperger's

Post Reply New Topic

To clarify: I did not mean they couldn't co-exist, but that they are different disorders with some overlaps which can sometimes be confused by psychiatrists.

These diagnoses are based upon non-Autistic pathology.

IF the brain is wired differently, is there not a possibility that Non-Autistic psychiatric and psychological disorders could present differently( or could simply be a natural part of an Autists, neurology)?


TheSunAlsoRises

That's what I thought. Interested if any links to say otherwise.

http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/1992-13243-001

TheSunAlsoRises

http://aacap.org/cs/root/facts_for_fami ... s_disorder

4th para

Thanks greentigress and TheSunAlsoRises,

that's really interesting.

It amazes me how they diagnose both together in that case, being that there are common traits. I wonder how they decide which condition is responsible for which traits. It's also really interesting, that they say that autistics are no more likely to get schizophrenia than the general population, because I've read about both conditions possibly being caused by the same gene/set of genes. That makes it even more confusing, because of them being no more likely to suffer schizophrenia than anyone else.

This thread is so interesting to me. I know a person who has so many symptoms of AS, but yet they are also very delusional and hallucinate. The thought of them having both has occurred to me.

Only way you can have both is if you have always had autism in your childhood and then when you reached your teens or young adulthood, you start to hallucinate and show signs of schizophrenia. That is the only way you can have both. But the DSM does say you can't have both so I suppose that means we are immune to getting that mental illness or that schizophrenia cures us from autism if we get it.

Last edited by League_Girl on 26 Aug 2012, 2:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.

The DSM has a bit of latitude. Let me put it to you this way, technically, certain conditions are not suppose to be diagnosed together so differential diagnoses are made. However, sometimes, on occasion, two or more conditions that are normally diagnosed separately....appear together.

There have been rare cases of Rett syndrome/Autism, Angelman Syndrome/Autism, etc. And, although technically it was considered a differential diagnosis; ADHD and Autism have been diagnosed together for years......to the point where it has evolved into a co-morbid.

* just an opinion and should be taken as such.

TheSunAlsoRises

Isn't it convoluted! When you think about it, the diagnoses of conditions are just names made up by humans based on a set of conditions. Who is to say they've got it right, it could be that where they are diagnosing two co-morbid conditions it's really just a variation of one condition or actually an entirely separate (previously unnamed) condition from both the co-morbids.

It amazes me how they diagnose both together in that case, being that there are common traits.
Good points in your post
I have since read all over that schizophrenia does not occur with ASD
But on wiki a co occurring Schizoaffective is possible as a psychiatric condition ( in the Aspie section )
I remember that I have been told by the genetic researcher who came half way accross the country that I may have sz affective
This was my rediagnosis due to a worsening mood element in my time in hospital

I have both.
I was diagnosed with autism at age six.
I was diagnosed with schizophrenia at age seventeen.

That does match my observations of the person who I believe has both...it seems as though the autism symptoms always existed, than the onset of schizofrenia began in their young adult years. I would take it a step further and wonder if the delusions were forming in order to compensate for their inability to understand their social relationships, and they slowly formed into "explanations" for things that they could not make sense of on their own.

I makes me wonder then, whether it's not only a case of AS being misdiagnosed in some cases as schizophrenia, but possibly their understanding of schizophrenia could be wrong and it is possible to have it in childhood, just that they haven't recognised it yet* and have potentially (if this were true) also misdiagnosed schizophrenia as AS. That way your experience would also make sense.

*the reason for that could be because it has always been misdiagnosed as AS, and in those people it was always schizophrenia.

Just my speculation. I guess when science has evolved enough that they can categorically pinpoint the gene(s) responsible for both conditions, they can say for sure.

League_Girl wrote:
Only way you can have both is if you have always had autism in your childhood and then when you reached your teens or young adulthood, you start to hallucinate and show signs of schizophrenia.

This is how it was for me
Showed Symptoms of aspergers since infancy
Became paranoid( for starters) age 17 to19 diagnosed age 18 with paranoid sz
I was reclassified as Schizoaffective in A hospital where I was for 3 months at the end of 9 months psychotic
I have had enduring psychosis, mood elements, with a lifetime of being Aspie

Interesting to read that you cant have schizophrenia and aspergers co morbidly. that my current psychiatrist is more keen for me to take care of my mental health by stressing A dx of Asperger's would not interfere with a lifelong need to take meds against psychosis

No, there is no history of Schizophrenia or anything similar in my family, thank God. There's ADD, Autism, Bipolar, and OCD (on both sides), but definitely not Schizophrenia.