Question

After months of trying, Jani’s parents and physicians narrow their search for a diagnosis down to two contenders – bipolar disorder with psychotic features and schizophrenia. Use the memoir and the DSM to make a case for diagnosing one disorder over the other. What details about Jani’s behavior support your choice? What symptoms do the disorders share? How are they different? What factors contribute to the difficulty of making a definitive diagnosis?

Information from the book

January First: A Child's Descent into Madness and Her Father's Struggle to Save Her

by Michael Schofield

Answer 1

Name of the patient Jani,

Age 15 years

symptoms Mood swing, hallucination( involves senses like (visual, audio, olfactory, etc), delusion, dramatic shift in the mood energy and ability t think clearly, mania and depression.

Bipolar disorder with psychotic features and schizophrenia both are mental disorders the exact cause of both the disorders are not exactly known, but these are related to the genetic disorder, environmental, and altered brain structure and chemistry.

The person suffering from schizophrenia usually have hallucinations like they hear, see, smell, or feel things no one else does and hear voices, they seem to warn them of the danger they seem to be talking to these voices. They have the delusion that they are being watched and controlled by an unknown person or body. They have difficulty in organizing thought, it becomes difficult for them to express. They do the same movement again and again or sit down quietly. In most of the cases the symptoms decrease with age, but in a few cases, it remains throughout life.

The bipolar disorder with psychotic features is the stage of bipolar and visual hallucinations do happen in bipolar disorder two. There are two types of psychosis, hallucinations, and delusions. There are three types of bipolar they are bipolar I disorder bipolar II disorder and Cyclothymic Disorder and bipolar disorder specified and unspecified the person suffering from bipolar disorder have psychotic symptoms at the same time as mania and depression,

There symptoms like hallucination and delusion common in bipolar disorder with psychotic features and schizophrenia. The onset of schizophrenia late teens to the early 20s for men, and the late 20s to early 30s for women, in rare cases it is found after the age of 40. Bipolar disorder is found at any age, it is a mood swing, during maniac attack, the person feels very energetic and on top of the world and irritable while in the depressive mood they are sad and hopeless, and feel helpless. The suicidal tendency is also noticed.

The treatment for both disorders is Psychotherapy, and Antipsychotic medications and talk therapy.