Schizophreniform Disorder is a psychiatric disorder that lasts for less than six months. It has certain symptoms that are quite similar to schizophrenia such as delusions, hallucinations, disrupted behavior, thought and personality patterns, surreal behavior, and cognitive impairment. This disorder seems to have a sudden onset and is not precipitated by any specific factors. This disorder may or may not be associated to any consequent psychiatric condition and is usually witnessed in an undifferentiated form. All recently diagnosed cases of schizophrenia are initially diagnosed as schizophreniform disorder. Almost half of the patients with this disorder are diagnosed with schizophrenia at a later stage and it is most likely to affect those individuals who have first degree relatives who are schizophrenic or have bipolar disorder.

Difference between Schizophreniform Disorder and Schizophrenia:

Schizophreniform disorder is a serious mental disorder and is closely related to schizophrenia. The major difference between the two is that the complete duration of the disorder lasts from a minimum of one month to a maximum of six months. Also, it is not necessary for the affected individual to exhibit signs of impaired social or occupational functioning during the tenure of the illness.

Treatment Methods:

Schizophreniform disorder is usually treated with the help of medications. It is a chronic psychiatric condition and needs immediate attention. The various drugs used it treat this disorder include, tranquilizers and antipsychotic medications. Phenothiazines or major tranquilizers are administered to treat the symptoms of threatening, untamed and dangerous behavior and help reduce anxiety in these patients. They have a calming effect on the symptoms of schizophreniform disorder.

Antipsychotic drugs are also widely used to treat the symptoms of this disorder. A patient is usually discharged within weeks or months from the hospital. Some of these patients recover completely without any relapse. However, it is estimated that almost 10 percent of the patients become schizophrenic and show resistance to drug therapy and undergo an irreversible negative syndrome or disorganized deterioration.