changing diagnoses?

Question

My step mom was diagnosed with Bipolar/schizoprenia/manic depression over 20 years ago. She has recently experienced numerous "episodes" in the last two years and has been going on and off her medication. She has entered 2 different in-patient hospitals in the last two years each 4 times due to having an episode and being uncontrollable. Each time she has gone into each facility, her diagnosis has changed. After her last 72 hour hold in a facility that she has been in before, they told her that she is now psychotic.

Is it normal for a mentally ill patients' diagnosis to change like this?
Her changes have ranged from just being bipolar to being an alcoholic(i have no idea where the doctor came up w/ that one) to being depressed to having Depersonalization disorder.

Answer 1

unfortunately, this is not all thatunusual. psychosis is a symptom of schizophrenia and depression is one part of bipolar. these two disorders are sometimes mistaken for eachother because the out of control behavior of the mania in bipolar sometimes seems very close to the behavior of a schizophrenic and visa versa. if a person meets criteria for bipolar and is having psychotic symptoms( hallucinations, etc) they could be diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder bipolar type which is almost a combo of the two symptom lists. the best thing to do to ensure a true and correct diagnosis is to get into outpatient care on a long term basis so there ias a professional that knows enough about the person to make a sound judgement that can be followed up on.

Answer 2

Bipolar Disorder, Major Depression, Schizophrenia and Schizoaffective Disorder can all share many of the same symptoms. It often takes some time for a doctor to make an accurate diagnosis. Has she been seeing different doctors? This may explain why she gets different diagnoses. She needs to find a good doctor and stick with him/her. That way the doctor can observe her symptoms and course over a period of time and make a correct diagnosis.

Answer 3

Psychosis is a symptom, not a disorder. It can certainly happen because of non-compliance with her medication. Diagnoses can change because of the emergence of new symptoms of mental illness/personality disorders that weren't detectable during previous hospitalizations because of the acute episode. I hope this answers your question.