Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a brain disorder that is characterized by abnormalities in the perception and expression of reality. Normally, distortions of perception impair all five senses but most commonly manifest as auditory hallucinations, paranoid delusions and disorganized speech and thinking with a significant social dysfunction. Schizophrenia is a disorder which is genetic and patients are born with but whose symptoms may not develop until a patient reaches adulthood. Schizophrenia symptoms are usually classified in terms of negative and positive symptoms. Positive symptoms refer to symptoms that most individuals do not normally experience. They include delusions, auditory hallucinations, and thought disorders. Negative symptoms are classified by an absence of or a loss of normal traits. These include features such as flat or blunted effect and emotion, lack of motivation and an inability to experience pleasure.

Multi Personality Disorder (MPD)

Multi Personality Disorder is a psychiatric disorder that describes a condition in which a single person displays multiple distinct personalities (alter egos) that each has its own pattern of perceiving and interacting with their environment. A person with MPD may develop as many as 100 personalities of the same sex, opposite sex or both sexes at the same time. Patients are not born the disorder but instead develop the disorder through a life experience such as childhood trauma, sexual abuse or physical abuse.

The confusion usually comes in when individuals identify multiple personalities as a symptom of schizophrenia. In fact, schizophrenia is not about multiple personalities but instead about a split mind where senses don’t link properly with reasoning and memory. To learn more about schizophrenia, multiple personality disorder and other psychiatric conditions visit NorthShore University HealthSystem’s neuroscience department.