Does this sound like Schizophrenic Prodrome? (Sister) Please read

Okay - first - why i"m writing this - i just read on a news site that a man killed his father by reason of insanity that his father had abused him with no previous evidence

i will say that there is a limited amount of evidence that yes, my father is a pedophile, so please don’t get me wrong, I just don’t know what to think.

My sister may be prodromal. 18 months ago she very suddenly (within a matter of hours or days) had the belief that she was abused by my father, although this is possible there were things that weren’'t like him shaving her all over including her head, at the time she said as a baby as a young child and as an older child in ‘ritual’ shavings… later she said only once but i’m sure she said more than once. I don’t want to disbelieve her, especially because abuse memories can be confused, when the child is young it is normal for memories to come back in a funny way.
At the same time, she talked about the local gypsy being her brother and that her potential boyfriend had hypnotised her into past life regression where she said that her husband in another life had burned her alive with her seven blonde children in a barn, because he was jealous .

Later this developed into a more persistent (and very possible) that my father took her to a house and had watched her abused by several men.

My sister is alcoholic, she shouts a lot, she does get very abusive, remembers things that weren’t true, remembers a lot wrongly, and accuses and blames me and our mum

She has not deteriorated since the brief spell above, but has been not capable of much work (panic attacks) and has also been tortured by constant suicidal feelings more on than off for the past year or more. She spends a lot of her time alone, and went to London not letting anyone know where she went, only saying she was safe.

The other factor is that me and our middle sister both have or had Schizophrenia.

I read a brief thing where positive symptoms briefly, can be prodromal, and other things are taken into account like family history and other milder positive symptoms… (like what? what could a mild positive symptom be? the memories she has are so fleeting sometimes and she is sure of them and sometimes they make no sense.

Could this all be prodrome? I am terrified for her if so - she is suicidal, chronically and frequently acutely…

it is 16 - 17 months since it all started is that too long for a prodrome to last?

Thanks

What else could i look out for if she is displaying other signs

she hardly speaks, and i think that can be a sign

Prodromes can last for years. The fact that she is a true alcoholic makes this cloudy…could be related, even confounding.

The stuff you described sounds like the prodromal phase of schizophrenia.

The question is what to do about it- I say get her to a psychiatrist and let them bother with diagnoses.

How many siblings do you have and how many of them are mentally ill, and what mental illnesses do they have?

Thanks mortimermouse,

Thanks - i didn’t get that far yet researching, It’s news that they can last years - i thought possibly it was getting past that …

She is alcoholic, She is 5 days off at the minute but normally that is as far as it goes, there is always hope, bit less if it is prodrome.

I’m paranoid schizophrenic and my sister was dx psz but i think displayed more disorganised symptoms than I had,

She had very early onset and severe unremitting course of illness

She was hit by a car 14 yrs ago aged 25.

I have been looking at symptoms… she certainly has dysphoric mood and disturbed sleep

I guess that i might need to ask mum if we can get to a psychiatrist with her, but under what pretense? We couldn’t say that she might be unwell because then she will think we are calling her crazy again and not believing her about the abuse!!!

I suppose a psychiatrist rather than a regular gp could be enlisted because of antidepressants always having a bad effect on her… if the psychiatrist is willing to do a bit of digging during interview … can’t see her ever speaking to me again if i say that i have doubts and that any of the abuse could have possibly not happened

  1. Changes in affect such as anxiety, irritability and depression
  2. Changes in cognition such as difficulty in concentration or memory
  3. Changes in thought content, such as a preoccupation with new ideas often of an unusual nature
  4. Physical changes such as sleep disturbance and loss of energy
  5. Social withdrawal and impairment of role functioning, which can include deterioration in school or work performance

Those are listed as prodrome symptoms,

  1. she has panic attacks when she works (recently tried to work again (managed a few weeks of one - 3 days) and had panic attacks), she is extremely clinically depressed, suicidal, withdrawn, irritability So much worse when pre menstrual, better at other times of the month but 10 days of extreme irritability, and ,more frequent alcoholic aggression, over the last couple of years.
  2. I don’t know how her cognition is - how do you measure that? “Cognitive impairment is when a person has trouble remembering, learning new things, concentrating, or making decisions that affect their everyday life”.
    I don’t know - this could be the main thing that sets her symptoms apart from Schizophrenia, but i will ask my mum who is around her all the time,
  3. memories, (not just abuse memories) distorted sometimes recalling things which could not have happened, in one extreme case 17 months ago past lives and other memories seemingly ‘pulled out of the hat’
  4. For a long time she has thought that our father has abused her, some details could be true but others - (him shaving her all over inc head) are not possible because our mum would have known.
  5. Her sleep is very disturbed, frequently only getting 4 or so hours, loss of energy? She still exercises but a bit more sporadically.
    Spends a lot of time alone on the computer or resting.
  6. Role impairment - her depression has made her unable to work much, or even communicate much,