Question

compare and contrast schizophreniform disorder from brief psychotic disorder, for this discussion, you will need to place particular emphasis on how comprehensive assessment could help us to arrive at the correct diagnosis.

Answer 1

Ans) Psychosis is a common symptom of many psychiatric, neurodevelopmental, neurologic, and medical conditions and is an important target of evaluation and treatment in neurologic and psychiatric practice.

- The DSM-5 classification of and criteria for primary psychotic disorders emphasize that these conditions occur along a spectrum, with schizoid (personality) disorder and schizophrenia defining its mild and severe ends, respectively. Psychosis is also identified as only one of several dimensions of neuropsychiatric disturbance in these disorders, with others encompassing abnormal psychomotor behaviors, negative symptoms, cognitive impairments, and emotional disturbances.

- This dimensional approach regards hallucinations and delusions as arising from neural systems subserving perception and information processing, thereby aligning the neurobiological framework used to describe and study such symptoms in primary psychotic disorders with those used to study psychosis associated with other neurologic conditions.

- Comprehensive neuropsychiatric assessment is a prerequisite to the treatment of psychotic symptoms, and it prioritizes identification of medical, substance-related, and neurologic causes of psychosis over their attribution to psychiatric conditions.

- The use of structured clinical interviews of patients and knowledgeable informants to clarify the character of psychosis and associated symptoms.

- Data yielded by such interviews establishes a baseline for monitoring disease progression and against which the effects of treatment can be compared.

- Those treatments include pharmacotherapies and psychosocial interventions, the specific elements of which should follow up-to-date guidelines and findings.