Difference between psychosis and schizophrenia

Question

Can you please illustrate the difference between the psychosis and the schizophrenia?

Answer 1

As loosely indicated by @DanielMera in another answer,

Psychosis is part of schizophrenia, and it can be part of other psychiatric disorders, too.

Psychosis (plural = psychoses)

Psychosis is (Hayes & Kyriakopoulos, 2018)

an umbrella term for a clinical presentation conceptualized, both by the American Psychiatric Association [APA] and the World Health Organization [WHO], as a combination of hallucinations, delusions, disorganized thinking or behaviour, negative or catatonic symptoms, and functional impairment.

When someone is having a psychotic episode, they are not necessarily suffering all of the symptoms in the combination set in Hayes & Kyriakopoulos above, but could be suffering just one of those symptoms. Basically, psychoses involve a disconnect from reality — It causes you to lose touch with reality (WebMD, 2021; NHS, n.d.). While psychosis is not a mental health disorder on it's own, psychosis is part of mental health issues which can cause very serious problems for those suffering with them.

Another umbrella term for mental health disorders is neurosis.

Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is one of many mental health disorders which involve psychosis, and the latest edition (5th edition) of the Diagnostic and Statistics Manual (DSM-5) stipulates that because Schizophrenia is a specific disorder separate to other conditions which may involve psychosis — Schizophrenia spectrum and other psychotic disorders include schizophrenia, other psychotic disorders, and schizotypal (personality) disorder (APA, 2013),

the diagnosis of a schizophrenia spectrum disorder requires the exclusion of another condition that may give rise to psychosis (p.89 - Schizophrenia Spectrum and Other Psychotic Disorders).

You could get a copy of DSM-5 in the library or buy it online directly from the APA or any other good book store.

Insel (2010) also defines Schizophrenia:

Schizophrenia is a syndrome: a collection of signs and symptoms of unknown aetiology, predominantly defined by observed signs of psychosis. In its most common form, schizophrenia presents with paranoid delusions and auditory hallucinations late in adolescence or in early adulthood. These manifestations of the disorder have changed little over the past century.

Other conditions which involve psychosis include Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as PTSD sufferers can experience hallucinations which can involve one or more of the 5 basic senses. In extremes, the hallucinations can sometimes involve all the senses to totally remove the person from what is going on in the present reality. There can also be paranoid delusions where they can believe, for example, that there is always going to be someone around the corner ready to attack them.

References

(🔓 = open access journal)

APA. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM-5®). American Psychiatric Pub. https://www.psychiatry.org/psychiatrists/practice/dsm

Hayes, D., & Kyriakopoulos, M. (2018). Dilemmas in the treatment of early-onset first-episode psychosis. Therapeutic advances in psychopharmacology, 8(8), 231–239. https://doi.org/10.1177/2045125318765725 🔓

Insel, T. R. (2010). Rethinking schizophrenia. Nature, 468(7321), 187-193. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature09552 🔓

NHS (n.d.). Psychosis - Overview
https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/conditions/psychosis/overview/

WebMD (2021). Psychosis and Psychotic Episodes
https://www.webmd.com/schizophrenia/guide/what-is-psychosis

Answer 2

Psychosis is part of schizophrenia, and it can be part of other psychiatric disorders, too. Psychosis is a concept that describes specific symptoms. Schizophrenia is a mental illness that has psychotic features. When broken down into symptoms, the notion of schizophrenia vs psychosis makes sense.

Psychosis isn’t a mental disorder by itself. Instead, specific features define the experience psychologists call psychosis. Some of the psychotic symptoms include hallucinations, delusions, confusion, and confused speech.