Cochrane: It
is important for patients with psychosis to be correctly diagnosed as
soon as possible. The earlier schizophrenia is diagnosed the better the
treatment outcome. However, other diseases sometimes have similar
psychotic symptoms as schizophrenia, for example bipolar disorders.
This
review looks at how accurate First Rank Symptoms (FRS) are at diagnosing
schizophrenia. FRS are symptoms that people with psychosis may
experience, for example hallucinations, hearing voices and thinking that
other people can hear their thoughts. We found 21 studies, with 6253
participants, that looked at how good FRS are at diagnosing
schizophrenia when compared to a diagnosis made by a psychiatrist. These
studies showed that for people who actually have schizophrenia, FRS
would only correctly diagnose just over half of them as schizophrenic.
For people who do not have schizophrenia, almost 20% would be
incorrectly diagnosed with schizophrenia. Therefore, if a person is
experiencing a FRS, schizophrenia is a possible diagnosis, but there is
also a chance that it is another mental health disorder. We do not
recommend that FRS alone can be used to diagnose schizophrenia. However,
FRS could be useful to triage patients who need to be assessed by a
psychiatrist. - See more at:
http://summaries.cochrane.org/CD010653/SCHIZ_first-rank-symptoms-for-schizophrenia#sthash.OF32v26M.dpuf