Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are two psychological disorders that affect the patient's mood and how she functions. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) states that schizophrenia is a rare disorder, affecting 1 percent of the population, and interferes in the patient's perception of reality. Bipolar disorder causes the patient to have two mood extremes: mania and depression. While both disorders have similar symptoms, they cause different behaviors in patients.
Number of Subtypes
Each disorder has multiple subtypes, which results in a separate set of symptoms. Schizophrenia has five subtypes: paranoid schizophrenia, catatonic schizophrenia, disorganized, residual schizophrenia and undifferentiated schizophrenia. A patient with undifferentiated schizophrenia has symptoms of more than one schizophrenia subtype.
Bipolar disorder has four subtypes: bipolar disorder I, bipolar disorder II, cyclothymia and bipolar disorder NOS. A patient with bipolar disorder NOS has distinct mood swings, but his symptoms cannot be categorized in one of the other three subtypes.
Loss of Reality
Schizophrenia is defined by problems telling the difference between reality and falsehoods. The Mayo Clinic states that a schizophrenia patient has positive symptoms, which is a distortion of normal functions. These positive symptoms include delusions, disorganized behavior, hallucinations and thought disorder. As a result, the patient sees and hears things that do not exist, and cannot tell that they are not real.
A bipolar disorder patient usually maintains his sense of reality, unless he has bipolar disorder with psychosis, where he has hallucinations and delusions. However, the bipolar disorder patient has these symptoms only during a manic or depressive episode.
Motor Problems
Depending on the type of schizophrenia, the patient can have issues with mobility. For example, a patient with catatonic schizophrenia can have motor disturbances that include balance and coordination problems, and rigid muscles. The Mayo Clinic states that a patient with bipolar disorder does not have any motor problems, though during a manic episode, the patient can have increased physical activity.
Abnormal Behavior
The abnormal behavior seen in bipolar disorder depends on the mood stage the patient is in. The NIH states that during mania, the patient is prone to aggressive behavior, alcohol and drug use and other risky behavior, like unprotected sex. When the patient shifts into depression, the behaviors change to suicidal behavior and social withdrawal.
If a patient has disorganized schizophrenia, she can also have social withdrawal, as well as repetitive behavior and regressive behavior, where she returns to child-like activities.
