Can drugs trigger Schizophrenia when it should be AS?

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My sibling was diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic years ago.

It started when she was doing really well at college in her teens, and got in with the wrong crowd and ended up taking drugs. Before the drugs she was fine and after was when the schizophrenia started. Is it possible she actually has AS and the drugs turned it into schizophrenia?

I know schizophrenia is genetically related to AS so it's very likely she does have schizophrenia and that it would have started even without the drugs. I don't know exactly what drugs she took, all I know is that it started with marijuana.

Thanks,

It is likely that if someone with AS or without has taken drugs and too much of them schizophrenia can have a quicker onset.

Well it is certainly possible the drugs could have contributed, depending on what drugs....obviously not all drugs do the same things. But also keep in mind schizophrenia can come on rather suddenly when one reaches adulthood. So it could just be that it didn't show itself till after the drug use but had nothing to do with it. Hard to say though.

It could also be she noticed symptoms and was self medicating with the drugs in an attempt to mask it or something. As far as I know drugs cannot turn aspergers into schizophrenia or cause specific mental disorders on their own so at best it might be a factor but that's about it.

I hear that very often that schizophrenia is triggered by drugs.

It seems fairly common.
There is even a pruginduced psychosis, but usually it goes away, after a while after you stop takeing drugs. The problems just starts when someone has the genes for schizophrenia, than they can actually trigger schizophrenia.

But it could also be "self medication" to beginn of a psychotic episode.

I have always been Aspie but i didn't know till age 37 last year

I have taken a few drugs in adolescence and have Schizophrenia because of it
my late sister was Dyslexic and Schizophrenic
my youngest sister is Dyslexic and Alcoholic
my mum is Dyslexic
my cousin is Autistic

it's all a bit linked somehow

So it is possible to have both AS and schizophrenia then?

Thinking back, she has had a tendency to say socially inappropriate things, and in photographs she did have the 'Aspie stare', and she was prone to violent outbursts as a pre-teen (I was scared of her).

Do any of those things comprise part of schizophrenia?

Many researchers describe the development of schizophrenia (and many other adult-onset mental illnesses) using the 'diathesis-stress model'.

The 'diathesis' is a pre-existing susceptibility to the condition, usually genetically based. For example, you've inherited a bunch of schizophrenia risk genes. Often the person will have Schizotypal PD or something similar (sometimes AS) but sometimes they're apparently NT.

Then, something happens that triggers the condition. It can be physical (eg a drug, an illness, etc) or psychological (a traumatic event, army basic training, etc). But because of the person's genes, they're predisposed to develop schizophrenia in response to physical or psychological stress.

Incidentally, regarding if you can have AS and schizophrenia - according to DSM-IV, if criteria for both are met, only schizophrenia can be diagnosed. However, many clinicians disagree, and will diagnose both if the AS traits were clearly present since early childhood and the psychotic traits had a much later onset.

Thanks Ettina, that's really helpful.

This isn't exactly correct. According to the DSM if someone with an autism spectrum disorder develops schizophrenia it should only be diagnosed if hallucinations and/or delusions are present. This is because some of the symptoms have some overlap but ASD never causes delusions and hallucinations on its own. Developing schizophrenia does not get rid of autism.

This is actually false. Would you presume someone who is a drug-addict also has shizophrenia or shizoid symptoms because of a genetic diagnoss? absurd. The only failure is actually mis-diagnosing someone based on missed statutory guidelines in which to air their views in protest to the onset of something more sinister.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schizotypa ... y_disorder
Millon's subtypes

Theodore Millon identified four subtypes of schizoid.[33][34] Any individual schizoid may exhibit none or one of the following:



Subtype

Features



Languid schizoid (including depressive features)

Marked inertia; deficient activation level; intrinsically phlegmatic, lethargic, weary, leaden, lackadaisical, exhausted, enfeebled.[33]



Remote schizoid (including avoidant, schizotypal features)

Distant and removed; inaccessible, solitary, isolated, homeless, disconnected, secluded, aimlessly drifting; peripherally occupied.[33]



Depersonalized schizoid (including schizotypal features)

Disengaged from others and self; self is disembodied or distant object; body and mind sundered, cleaved, dissociated, disjoined, eliminated.[33]


Affectless schizoid (including compulsive features)

Passionless, unresponsive, unaffectionate, chilly, uncaring, unstirred, spiritless, lackluster, unexcitable, unperturbed, cold; all emotions diminished

Stress and other influences trigger very often the traits you have allready.
That's nothing new in psychiatry.
Ettina explained it very good in my opinion.

This doesn't make any sense to me either or I expect people coming for advice or help and reading that.
what are you trying to say as by your proposed pre-diagnostic criteria is of someone who apparently has no consensus of themselves at all apart from being diagnosed by a shrink and that is it.
Theres got to be more to it than that and as in traits of aspergers.
you don't just say to someone, anyone in a profession hm I think you've got spd and possibly aspergers and meet the criteria for a double match. this isn't organ donors we're talking here!
would they then answer back yeah, actually I think I do. the only reason ive posted back here is because a lot of the posts you're answering back to are in your belief hallucinatory or mystical by proxy when actually its the person who is real here and no amount of angst or objection will defy it by words or self delusion.
The only real proof of defiance here is your diagnosis and no one elses.

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postp5328431 ... t=#5328431 (your post)
http://www.autism.org.uk/About-autism/R ... drome.aspx

I believe that a strained amount of narcissism borders on the defensive here. I only mentioned what I thought was an obvious trait besides schizotypy disorders but I see now that the odds are badly stacked and plaintively wrong.

I really don't get your behaviour at the moment.

glow, I've read over your post several times, and the only meaning I can get out of it is that I think you're mad at me about something.

Can you please clarify what you're trying to say? It's not making sense to me.

Well seeing as your condition does include narcissistic traits i will be try and be fair to you.
I suppose its not your fault if you want to challenge these statisitcs and feed
off of partly vulnerable responses people give in answer to your self-deluded questions.
A part of what you have tried to say in answer to previous posts that you have written
is that you think a shizotypical person has by definition forgotten that they are guarded
by interpersonal demands.
Dont think that just because you've changed your age from 16 to suddenly
24 you know all there is to know about people. If this is your definition of learning to say to people here
that your self-deluded and a bit crazy, you may want to look at the subject a bit more closely and supposing you are correct about someone else does that give you the right to add increased pressure to tell them what they are is that it?
and in terms of you raziel, i think you may need a drugs test, just to be sure you aint got 'schizophrenia'.
Also, I don't have any time for sadist comments or complaints.

That's NOT what I said.
But thanks for the advise, a friend of mine is diagnosed with schizophrenia and took drugs before that.
Of course this doesn't happen to everyone who takes drugs.
But I wanted to meantion "drug induced psychosis" is an officiall diagnosis:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_induced_psychosis