What is psychosis ?
Psychosis is a mental state image (mental illness) where the patient's normal contact - experienced by his environment - reality is completely or partially lost.
Psychosis symptoms
In a psychosis is referred to as positive and negative symptoms. Positive symptoms are symptoms that are evident to anyone, such as hallucinations and delusions. Negative symptoms refer to the absence or flattening of something, such as emotions, speech, vigor or thoughts.
Positive symptoms can include:
-Delusions - Thoughts that do not comply with generally accepted beliefs or ideas and that the patient can not be put off by logical reasoning. Often, but not always, there is also mention of paranoia; excessive suspiciousness eg leading to the imagination that are everywhere hidden cameras or microphones, there are conspiracies, or that the person sought by the police or by international security forces.
-Hallucinations - Observation of things that are not there, as voices in the head, images, smells and touches.
-Confused thinking - psychotics and their surroundings have great difficulty understanding each other through the process of thought and expression is altered by the psychosis. It is chaotic or too slow or too fast. The behavior of the patient by its environment often are not placed (and vice versa). The thought-stop, where the patient feels that his thoughts suddenly stop completely is seen as a serious form of thought disorder.
-Confused speaking and writing - even if the thoughts of the patient are consistent problems he may have to express it in language. Sometimes from themselves speak in this hurried, strange word choices or use of neologisms. For larger confusion can also phenomena such as echolalia, Palilalia or glossolalia occur.
-Disturbed emotions - A patient may experience increased emotions or not at all appropriate for a situation, such as laughing at a funeral. Also someone can no apparent reason suddenly emotional; For example, he or she suddenly begins to cry. Emotions can seem absent.
Negative symptoms may include talk little, lack demonstrate initiative, a disturbed circadian rhythm for a long time, having little energy, low motor expression, a flat facial expression and withdraw excessive.
Sensitivity
The symptoms of psychosis (particularly hallucinations or delusions) are particularly known in schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders such as bipolar disorder type I. Under extreme circumstances, such as war or serious mistreatment, even people with no history of psychiatric illness are psychotic.
Yet people are even under highly stressful conditions usually not psychotic, but get many suffer from dissociation and anxiety attacks. Only a small group of people get at relatively low external factors such as loss of a job, to divorce, relocation or vacation psychosis. Probably has to do with construction: an appearance too little or too much of certain substances in the brains. This combination of construction and external factors is shown in the vulnerability-stress model.
Sometimes psychoses, such as pregnancy or childbirth psychosis psychosis caused by large hormonal fluctuations. Even extreme sleep deprivation and drug use can lead to psychosis. When alcohol poisoning are psychotic symptoms known as delirium. Psychosis may also be a reaction to a severe depression or burnout.
In recent years, the risks of cannabis use for eliciting a psychosis become increasingly clear. Cannabis with a stronger THC concentration, particularly skunk, still appears to be much more psychosis-provocative.
Description
Sometimes leading up to psychosis takes several weeks to months, but the state picture can develop very quickly.
The phenomenon is somewhat similar to a person's state of mind after hearing a serious message, for example, on the death of a loved one or a serious car accident, after which some time 'of the world. "The immediate area is totally different experience for some time. Psychosis has also influence on the cognition whereby a psychotic example, someone can no longer be able to read a book.
Every man experiences the world subjectively, but normally the rational part of the brains to relativize things and placing them in context. During psychosis perception of the outside world is entirely determined by the state of mind and not diminished by the ratio. It is in fact independent of the reality while the difference seems lifted between inner and outer worlds. Typical examples of psychosis include the view of the patient that people on television speak to him in person that signs a special message to him or show him that the neighbors always keep an eye on.
Sometimes the situation is not so clear and changes burnout or depression gradually psychosis. It is a sliding scale with many gradations, a gray area between feelings of alienation and total psychosis in which one experiences a reality that is not there.
Some people do not know themselves that they have or have had a psychosis, while others even during the psychosis that their perception of reality can not be beat, and therefore register themselves for treatment. Early treatment can prevent long-term sick or people keep their jobs.
Early detection
It is especially in young people is important that psychotic symptoms are determined in time. The faster assistance can be offered, the smaller is the probability of the condition to be permanent. Scientific results underline the importance of early recognition and treatment of psychosis. There are established for that purpose special projects. In Flanders called this VDIP (Early Detection and Intervention in Psychiatric (Psychosis) Disorders). Sometimes working with a checklist for family members or concerned can verify whether there is a possibility of psychosis.
Psychosis treatment
Psychoses are usually treated with antipsychotic drugs that affect certain neurotransmitters in the brains. They are known for the unpleasant side effects that interfere with the motor, removing energy, flatten emotions and initiative away. Lack of compliance can therefore often be a problem in the treatment of psychosis. The newest funds would exhibit fewer of these side effects.
Antipsychotics should by people with bipolar or schizophrenic disorder often lifelong swallowed, even if they are not experiencing psychotic symptoms more. Many people after a primary treatment or to a low maintenance dose antipsychotics, some even without.
Some patients believe that nothing is wrong with him or her, they think it's the rest of the world that does weird. If the medication is stopped, the psychosis back often, and usually heavier. In contrast, others feel just the psychosis long before arriving. They have already had a psychosis and recognize the symptoms. A next psychosis can then often be prevented by taking a long-term low-dose antipsychotic.
Sensitivity for getting psychosis is often compared with having diabetes. In diabetes, it is better not to wait until someone is unconscious in the hospital, only then to glucose. Thus one can also see antipsychotics: there is an excess of a substance (for example, dopamine, a neurotransmitter), in the brains; it is then advisable to take a drug that can restore the balance to some extent.
The immediate environment of people predisposed to psychosis can sometimes relapse (relapse) provoke by too much criticism, expressing incomprehension or other emotional involvement. In psychiatric jargon, this is called high expressed emotion. Watching a neutral position (low expressed emotion) may help prevent relapse.
People with psychosis can sometimes be a danger to themselves or others. Whether or not forced hospitalization in a psychiatric hospital may be necessary. Temporary forced seclusion in a dedicated special purpose, located on the closed section of the clinic in severe cases, part of the care plan. Such an approach is characterized by the freedom-restricting character and compelling them.