Question:
I have heard of schizo affective disorder but this diagnosis
has never been voiced by any of the psychiatrists I have had.How closely
related to md or sz is it?Or is the schizo part more prevalent in some and
the affective part more prevalent in others.
I tend to have the following symptoms, forgetfullness(? lithium or
illness),belief that i have female body parts and if i try hard enough i can
have female orgasm,feeling my body is not quite as it should be,difficulty
joining my thoughts together in order to plan things or make a decision
based on information available although i am quite good at absorbing
individual pieces of information,introverted,do not like being around a lot of
people,weird thoughts that tend to hang a round for a little while and then
be replaced by another set of weird thoughts. A lot of the time i have this
sense of being different from other people and somehow other people knowing that i am
different. Has anyone had a dx of sz and been prescribed lithium?
Or is lithium given to people suffering with a bipolar illness or a bipolar
illness combined with something like sz?
Answer:
Schizoaffective disorder can indeed accompany bipolar disorder when the
latter is not under good control. Thus the reason for being given lithium
was a logical choice in my opinion at that time. There is some significant
overlapping of symptoms between schizoaffective disorder and true
schizophrenia. It used to be many years ago that little differentiation was made between
schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Now we know better. But the same
modern antipsychotics (Zyprexa, Seroquel, and Risperdal) can be very
effective for both illnesses for many people. In bipolar disorder schizoaffective symptoms are predominantly manifested
when a person is at either extreme of the bipolar spectrum (either manic
or depressive). Thus schizoaffective symptoms (loss of touch with reality,
various forms of hallucinations, paranoia, delusions of grandeur, etc.)
can be avoided by using a mood stabilizer (or combination of mood
stabilizers) that are effective for the individual's bipolar condition. A
combination of Neurontin and Lamictal should likely have the best chance
of damping mood swings IF you should have a bipolar condition. However I
don't read anything about any mention of such mood shifts. Denial of a diagnosis is very common. No one wants to have a life long
mental illness. But like BP -- schizophrenia can be successfully retreated
-- particularly with the modern meds mentioned above. I certainly am not going to venture a diagnosis via the Net. But from the
description of your symptoms, you seem to me to favor schizophrenia rather
than schizoaffective disorder. In either case there is genuine Hope for
effective treatment!
I personally found lithium to very mind dulling and it kept me in a
depressed state for many months. (BTW I have BP II with URC and Mixed
States -- now under excellent control). Why not ask your pdoc precisely why you are being given lithium? How
about switching to one of those 3 new antipsychotics? Lithium is currently the most commonly prescribed medicine for people with
a bipolar condition. Although lithium carbonate is the cheapest by far, I
am firmly convinced that it will be one day replaced by the newer, more
effective mood stabilizers that have more benign adverse side effect
profiles (such as Lamictal and Neurontin).
