Schizophrenia testing is an integrative process — there is no single test that can provide an accurate diagnosis of this disorder. What’s needed instead is a comprehensive evaluation of symptom presentation and history, developmental and social history, family background, emotional and personality functioning, and cognitive functioning.
Why get tested?
Psychological testing helps clarify the diagnosis by corroborating related patterns of mental activity, helping to rule out alternative diagnoses, revealing potential targets for effective treatment, and providing information about which types of accommodations may be helpful.
Understanding schizophrenia
Although schizophrenia is widely considered to be one of the most genetically-determined mental illnesses, genetic factors still only account for about half of the risk. The other half likely consists of medical, environmental, social, and psychological factors.
Schizophrenia symptoms are also now recognized to fall along a spectrum, rather than an all-or-nothing condition. It can also co-occur with other mental health issues — making assessment more complicated.
How I can help
I have extensive training in the assessment of psychotic disorders — differentiating between a schizophrenia-spectrum disorder, versus psychotic symptoms presenting as part of a mood disorder, autism-spectrum disorder, or dissociative disorder. For more than ten years, I’ve helped people who experience extreme states of consciousness to gain a better understanding of what’s really going on.