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Schizophrenia VS Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)


Do you think that Schizophrenia and Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) are the same? The answer is NO! The public often holds a misbelief where a schizophrenic patient switches between multiple personalities. In fact, ONLY DID patients have a split personality. Today we will explain the differences between these two distinct mental disorders!

Types of disorder and symptoms

Both schizophrenia & DID are described under two different chapters in the DSM-5:
  • Schizophrenia -> Schizophrenia Spectrum & other psychotic disorders
  • DID -> Dissociative disorders
Both mental disorders has different characteristics too:

Schizophrenia:

  • Disruption in thinking, perception, emotions, behaviours

Positive symptoms:

  • Experience hallucinations (hearing voices & seeing things that does not exist/ are not real)
  • Have delusions (having beliefs that are uncommon/ odd)

Negative symptoms:

  • Expressionless (have flat constant emotion)
  • Anhedonia (can't feel happiness, pleasure)

Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) 

  • Have two or more distinct personalities that co-exist in one individual.
  • Experience disruption in identity (e.g: suddenly become bystanders of their 'own' behaviours and unable to gain control)
  • Experience dissociative amnesia or memory gaps (unable to remember some events) when recall everyday events, important information, and/or traumatic events. This forgetting should not be consistent with ordinary forgetting as well
According to DSM-5, hallucinations and delusions are the two main symptoms of schizophrenia. Both DID and Schizophrenia patients would hear voices, but what differentiates them from each other is that DID patients hear voices from their split personalities, whereas the voices heard by Schizophrenic patients are a form of hallucination.

Etiology and Onset Age

Schizophrenia:

Schizophrenia is a result of genetic and environmental factors. It can be inherited within the family, particularly monozygotic twins will have a higher chance of diagnosis. The birth month (especially winter month), maternal stress and infections, and nutrient deficiencies were also found to be correlated with the development of Schizophrenia in unborn children. Schizophrenia usually occurs at a later age, approximately around the 20s to 30s.

Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) 

Conversely, DID is caused by traumatic experiences during childhood. The conscious self dissociates and creates a new identity (person) that has a unique personality, thinking, and behaviours, to cope with overwhelming experiences such as sexual or emotional abuse. Hence, dissociation is deemed to be a coping mechanism for the self to cope with traumatic experiences. DID is more likely to occur in children at an average of 5.9 years old.

Cognitive Functions

Schizophrenia:

The cognitive function of schizophrenic patients will be affected such as having disorganized speech and inability to focus.

Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) 

DID patients may display dissociative amnesia such as being unable to recall what happened in the past or unable to recognize that they have done such action but, this dissociative amnesia is due to the switching of personality not the impairment of cognitive function. When one “personality” is in control, the other “personality” will be dormant, hence the inability to recall actions made by the previously ‘active personality”. 

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In essence, schizophrenia & DID are two separate mental disorders with different symptoms and causes. Hope you all gain a better understanding of these two disorders!



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