What are the Tests for Schizophrenia?

There isn’t one single test for schizophrenia.

To diagnosis schizophrenia, doctors have to find out what your symptoms are, and rule out other possible causes of those symptoms.

It’s really important to be totally honest with your doctor.
They need to know all the information to help you properly

There are some other mental health conditions that can look like schizophrenia. Your doctor will ask you a lot of questions, so they can understand exactly what’s going on. The sort of questions your doctor might ask could include…

The doctor will also ask themselves questions, to work through the possible causes.

The questions doctors will ask themselves might include things like… 1

Question	It’s more likely to be this condition if…	It’s more likely to be schizophrenia if…
Could it be severe depression or bipolar disorder?	The main symptoms are all negative, and sometimes they trigger psychosis1	The main symptoms are psychotic, and sometimes there are negative symptoms as well1
Could it be autism spectrum disorder or a communication disorder?	The person has always struggled to have normal social interactions, and does certain things over and over again1	The person starts having symptoms in adolescence rather than childhood.2
Could it be post-traumatic stress disorder? (PTSD)	Something traumatic (extremely stressful) happened to the person in the past, and they have flashbacks (unwanted memories), or re-enact or re-live it4	It is possible to have both PTSD and schizophrenia at the same time – both need to be treated 3,4
Could it be obsessive compulsive disorder? (OCD)	The person has strong but irrational beliefs (i.e. believing something no-one else believes), and the beliefs are about a particular fear, and the person has come up with rituals or things they feel they must do to avoid the thing they are scared of.1	The person has strong but irrational beliefs about a number of different things, and also has hallucinations and trouble thinking clearly5

REFERENCES:

National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. Clinical Knowledge Summaries: Pyschosis and schizophrenia; Differential diagnosis. Available at:
https://cks.nice.org.uk/topics/psychosis-schizophrenia/diagnosis/differential-diagnosis/ Last accessed: July 2022.
Goldstein G, et al. High-functioning autism and schizophrenia: a comparison of an early and late onset neurodevelopmental disorder. Arch Clin Neuropsych. 2002;17(5):461-475.
Dallel S, Cancel A, Fakra E. Prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder in schizophrenia spectrum disorders: a systematic review. Neuropsychiatry (London). 2018; 8(3): 1027-1037.
National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. Clinical Knowledge Summaries: PTSD. Available at:
https://cks.nice.org.uk/topics/post-traumatic-stress-disorder/ Last accessed: April 2022.
Qin J, et al. The shared and distinct white matter networks between drug-naïve patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder and schizophrenia. Front Neurosci. 2019;13. Doi:10.3389/fnins.2019.00096.