<p>There needs to be a lot more changes in the brain than just high dopamine for someone to have schizophrenia. Many people would have elevated dopamine and not be schizophrenics. For example, impulsive and aggressive people have high dopamine but are not schizophrenics. Happy people have high dopamine too!</p>
<p><a href="https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/22581-dopamine" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/22581-dopamine</a></p>
<p>Moreover, high dopamine in schizophrenia is characterized by it being high in particular areas and particular cells, not the whole brain. Schizophrenia is also categorized by misconnected brain regions, cellular type imbalance (e/i ratio), misregulated synapses, and more! Dopamine alone is not enough to categorize schizophrenia or ADHD!</p>
<p><a href="https://www.healthline.com/health/schizophrenia/schizophrenia-and-dopamine#:%7E:text=Increases%20in%20dopamine%20activity%20in,factors%20involved%20in%20schizophrenia%20symptoms" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.healthline.com/health/schizophrenia/schizophrenia-and-dopamine#:~:text=Increases%20in%20dopamine%20activity%20in,factors%20involved%20in%20schizophrenia%20symptoms</a>.</p>
<p>Because mental illnesses are poorly understood and share a lot of commonalities between them, psychiatrists often diagnose by symptoms and expertise as opposed to biological changes. We do not know enough biology (yet) to look at a brain and say schizophrenia or adhd; we look at a person's behavior and symptoms, etc.</p>
<p>DSM 5 is what psychiatrists use to diagnose: if you look at the section for schizophrenia or adhd, there is not much biology, just behavior.</p>
<p><a href="https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/24291-diagnostic-and-statistical-manual-dsm-5" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/24291-diagnostic-and-statistical-manual-dsm-5</a></p>
<p>It is not possible to calculate the probability of ADHD and schizophrenia from dopamine alone because dopamine misregulation in schizophrenia is region-specific and needs a lot more brain changes with it. Also, there is no accepted way of biologically differentiating schizophrenia or ADHD; it is only (right now) by the person's behavior and appearance etc.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-12-19T11:54:15.287Z
2023-12-20T10:03:20.490Z
2023-12-20T10:03:20.490Z
researcher145212
<p>So my understanding is that schizophrenia occurs when there is high dopamine activity. On the other hand adhd occurs due to low dopamine activity.</p>
<p>So here's my question: if the probability of someone suffering of schizophrenia is p. And the probability of someone suffering from adhd is P. Then naively assuming exclusive events one would expect the probability of having both schizophrenia and adhd to be P times p. But maybe they can interact with each other the probability of suffering from both is different? (Can someone direct me to a study?)</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-08-26T18:41:53.217Z
The mechanisms of neither schizophrenia nor ADHD are fully understood, and it's certainly not possible to reduce either to "high or low (some specific neurotransmitter)", I'm not sure where you got that idea.
Bryan Krause
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-08-26T18:46:01.470Z
I agree there are complexities. But I think the correlation with a specific neurotransmitter should tell me if it's possible to think of these of mutually exclusive events
More Anonymous
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-08-26T18:50:08.190Z
Found it: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6412852/#:~:text=23%25%20of%20patients%20with%20schizophrenia,diagnosed%20in%20the%20general%20population.
More Anonymous
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-08-27T16:42:27.183Z
I had seen an answer previously (or so I thought) ..did it get deleted?
More Anonymous
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-08-27T17:52:40.737Z
Yes, there was, it was automatically generated spam.
Bryan Krause
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-12-19T22:12:50.167Z
I asked a somewhat similar question with additional information: https://psychology.stackexchange.com/questions/30070/does-adhd-increase-the-risk-of-drug-induced-psychosis
Moritz Roessler
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-12-19T22:17:14.120Z
Not an answer, but IMHO ADHD should increase the vulnerability for psychosis  due to a hypersensitivity to dopamine in the mesolimbic area. Most schizophrenia patients exhibit a hyperactivity of D2 in the mesolimbic area. So anything that elevates D2 activity in that area has increased probability of inducing psychosis when a hypersensitivity is present.
Moritz Roessler
<schizophrenia><adhd>
Can schizophrenia and adhd interact?
More Anonymous
# Can schizophrenia and adhd interact?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2023-08-26)

So my understanding is that schizophrenia occurs when there is high dopamine activity. On the other hand adhd occurs due to low dopamine activity.

So here's my question: if the probability of someone suffering of schizophrenia is p. And the probability of someone suffering from adhd is P. Then naively assuming exclusive events one would expect the probability of having both schizophrenia and adhd to be P times p. But maybe they can interact with each other the probability of suffering from both is different? (Can someone direct me to a study?)

**Tags:** schizophrenia, adhd

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: The mechanisms of neither schizophrenia nor ADHD are fully understood, and it's certainly not possible to reduce either to "high or low (some specific neurotransmitter)", I'm not sure where you got that idea.  
> **username_0**: I agree there are complexities. But I think the correlation with a specific neurotransmitter should tell me if it's possible to think of these of mutually exclusive events  
> **username_0**: Found it: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6412852/#:~:text=23%25%20of%20patients%20with%20schizophrenia,diagnosed%20in%20the%20general%20population.  
> **username_0**: I had seen an answer previously (or so I thought) ..did it get deleted?  
> **username_1**: Yes, there was, it was automatically generated spam.  
> **username_2**: I asked a somewhat similar question with additional information: https://psychology.stackexchange.com/questions/30070/does-adhd-increase-the-risk-of-drug-induced-psychosis  
> **username_2**: Not an answer, but IMHO ADHD should increase the vulnerability for psychosis  due to a hypersensitivity to dopamine in the mesolimbic area. Most schizophrenia patients exhibit a hyperactivity of D2 in the mesolimbic area. So anything that elevates D2 activity in that area has increased probability of inducing psychosis when a hypersensitivity is present.  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2023-12-19. Score: 0

There needs to be a lot more changes in the brain than just high dopamine for someone to have schizophrenia. Many people would have elevated dopamine and not be schizophrenics. For example, impulsive and aggressive people have high dopamine but are not schizophrenics. Happy people have high dopamine too!

<https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/22581-dopamine>

Moreover, high dopamine in schizophrenia is characterized by it being high in particular areas and particular cells, not the whole brain. Schizophrenia is also categorized by misconnected brain regions, cellular type imbalance (e/i ratio), misregulated synapses, and more! Dopamine alone is not enough to categorize schizophrenia or ADHD!

[https://www.healthline.com/health/schizophrenia/schizophrenia-and-dopamine#:~:text=Increases%20in%20dopamine%20activity%20in,factors%20involved%20in%20schizophrenia%20symptoms](https://www.healthline.com/health/schizophrenia/schizophrenia-and-dopamine#:%7E:text=Increases%20in%20dopamine%20activity%20in,factors%20involved%20in%20schizophrenia%20symptoms).

Because mental illnesses are poorly understood and share a lot of commonalities between them, psychiatrists often diagnose by symptoms and expertise as opposed to biological changes. We do not know enough biology (yet) to look at a brain and say schizophrenia or adhd; we look at a person's behavior and symptoms, etc.

DSM 5 is what psychiatrists use to diagnose: if you look at the section for schizophrenia or adhd, there is not much biology, just behavior.

<https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/24291-diagnostic-and-statistical-manual-dsm-5>

It is not possible to calculate the probability of ADHD and schizophrenia from dopamine alone because dopamine misregulation in schizophrenia is region-specific and needs a lot more brain changes with it. Also, there is no accepted way of biologically differentiating schizophrenia or ADHD; it is only (right now) by the person's behavior and appearance etc.


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