Differential diagnosis between schizophrenia and in major depression: The importance of abnormal bodily phenomena

IntroductionAnomalies of bodily experience have for long been described as relevant features of schizophrenia and major depression, yet such experiences are usually neglected in clinical examination. Bodily experience is the implicit background of our experiences against which we develop a coherent sense of self as a unified, bounded entity, naturally immersed in a social world of meaningful others. Such tacit experiential background is often perturbed in schizophrenia and major depression. Empirical research shows that patients with schizophrenia and major depression frequently present many different kinds of anomalies of bodily experience in the course of their illness.ObjectiveTo characterize the abnormal bodily phenomena in both schizophrenia and major depression.AimTo improve differential diagnosis based on the identification of typical features of abnormal bodily experiences in persons affected by …