# Combined Mental Conditions **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 20, 2013, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/combined-mental-conditions/656235 "2013-04-20T18:04:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2013, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/combined-mental-conditions/656235/1 "2013-04-20T18:04:32Z")
So I am watching an episode of A Touch of Frost where an autistic guy sees a UFO, and the security guard for the quarry is later found dead. They haul the kid off to the jail and he is found unconscious in the holding cell. After the jail Doc examins him, he is left alone in a room and he starts acting paranoid. Is it possible for someone on the autism spectrum to develop classical paranoid schizophrenia? Would it make treating either the autism or the paranoia different or difficult? ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2013, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/combined-mental-conditions/656235/2 "2013-04-20T18:22:02Z")
Yes, it’s entirely possible for psychological disorders to be comorbid. Comorbidity between autism and schizophrenia is not uncommon. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2013, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/combined-mental-conditions/656235/3 "2013-04-20T22:59:32Z")
> [@pravnik](#): > > Yes, it’s entirely possible for psychological disorders to be comorbid. Comorbidity between autism and schizophrenia is not uncommon. OTOH, it’s apparently difficult for mental health care professionals to _diagnose_ comorbid conditions. Many mental disorders defined in the DSM have such vague criteria, and so many conditions have criteria that overlap the criteria for other conditions, that it’s a crapshoot to decide where one disorder ends and another one begins. If you look at the diagnostic criteria in the DSM, you’ll note that a great many of them specify that a certain condition may be diagnosed only if a certain other condition is _not_ diagnosed. So a lot of conditions with overlapping criteria cannot be diagnosed together _by definition._ ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/combined-mental-conditions/656235/4 "2013-04-22T01:34:16Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > OTOH, it’s apparently difficult for mental health care professionals to _diagnose_ comorbid conditions. Many mental disorders defined in the DSM have such vague criteria, and so many conditions have criteria that overlap the criteria for other conditions, that it’s a crapshoot to decide where one disorder ends and another one begins. > > If you look at the diagnostic criteria in the DSM, you’ll note that a great many of them specify that a certain condition may be diagnosed only if a certain other condition is _not_ diagnosed. So a lot of conditions with overlapping criteria cannot be diagnosed together _by definition._ How thrilling … now I have a mental image of a wheel of fortune type wheel with diagnoses in the little wedges… :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/combined-mental-conditions/656235/5 "2013-04-22T01:39:58Z")
Here’s a list of mental and physical conditions that are comorbid with autism: > **[Conditions comorbid to autism spectrum disorders](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conditions_comorbid_to_autism_spectrum_disorders)** > > Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder that begins in early childhood, persists throughout adulthood, and affects three crucial areas of development: communication, social interaction and restricted patterns of behavior. There are many conditions comorbid to autism spectrum disorder such as fragile X syndrome and epilepsy. > In medicine and in psychiatry, comorbidity is the presence of one or more additional conditions co-occurring with the primary one, or the effect of such ad... ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/combined-mental-conditions/656235/6 "2013-04-22T05:46:20Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > How thrilling … now I have a mental image of a wheel of fortune type wheel with diagnoses in the little wedges… :smack: Seriously, no shit, **aruvqan**! Psychiatric diagnoses are largely just a crapshoot. I am convinced of that.