What is the difference between depression and schizophrenia?

We know that depression is a mental illness, while schizophrenia is now classified as a brain disease. Many people confuse the two. In fact, the two are not the same disease. So what is the difference between depression and schizophrenia?

The difference between depression and schizophrenia:

Schizophrenia: The most complex of all mental illnesses, it is a serious, chronic, and disabling disease of the brain. It was once considered a mental illness, but is now classified as a brain disease.

The following are the most common symptoms of schizophrenia

Symptoms vary from person to person, but may include: Distorted perception of reality, confusion, paranoia, delusions, hallucinations, disordered thinking, loss of emotional control, flat affect (emotional expression), difficulty working and studying, lack of close relationships/social withdrawal, inflated self-esteem and/or unrealistically high self-esteem. The most striking and disorienting feature of schizophrenia is the sudden onset of psychotic symptoms.

The symptoms of schizophrenia may be similar to other mental illnesses, and medical diagnosis is necessary. As far as we know, schizophrenia is not caused by a single cause, but may be caused by many factors, such as genetics, behavior, and environment.

Depression: A common mental illness

Symptoms include: depression, loss of interest and happiness, fatigue, lack of concentration, constant thoughts of unhappy things, slow thinking and reaction, self-blame and guilt, significant decline in work, study and creativity, and in severe cases, suicidal thoughts and behaviors; in addition, there may be "weak" physical symptoms: such as insomnia and early awakening, loss of appetite, weight loss, loss of libido, drowsiness, headache and dizziness, etc. Diagnostic criteria: If the patient has most of the above symptoms, and they have them every day for more than 2 weeks, and have significantly affected normal work and life, the possibility of depression should be highly suspected.

There are several types of depression. If depression and extreme mood swings or irritability appear alternately, it is called bipolar disorder (one phase is depression; the other phase is mood swings or mania). Although both depression and schizophrenia belong to the category of mental illness, they are indeed fundamentally different. Depression is mostly caused by psychosocial factors, so some people call depression a "psychological cold" that modern people are prone to. In addition to psychosocial factors, the main pathogenic factors of schizophrenia are family inheritance and certain organic lesions in the brain. "Mental illness" is its synonym. In addition, the two are very different in diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis.