Expert: Libby Bonner - 8/10/2009

Question
What is the difference between bi polar audio hallucinations & schizophrenia?patient age 56 audio hallucinations diagnosed 18 months ago!

Answer
I had to look this up, but it appears that bipolar pts can experience hallucinations, most usually audio ones, as opposed to visual or tactile.

Increasing research - molecular, genetic, imaging - shows that the various mental illnesses are not as completely dissimilar as previously thought, and that they exist more on a continuum - one way to think abou it - or that there is overlap that had not been previously credited.  This doesn't change the fact that MOST symptoms for bipolar are those shared by a majority of bipolar patients.

One article that I just read suggested that the additional med/s for bipolars w/ hallucinations would be anti-psychotics...but they did not specify whether the older ones or the new "atypical" ones.

If you write again:  I would be interested to know what symptoms were present when he was diagnosed, and whether the hallucinations were present from the start or when they became apparent.