Affecting more than 50 million people worldwide and mostly targeting people between the ages of 12 and 30, psychosis is not a disease, but a symptom of psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia. The way a person evaluates what is going on around him/her, his/her perspective on events and his/her relationship with other people are reshaped with the effect of this disorder. In psychosis, the person experiences the real world and their own distorted world of thought at the same time and while they are awake. Correct forms of perception and interpretation are foreign to him/her. The concepts that the person previously valued become meaningless, while the values, fears and thoughts created in their own world come to the fore.
What is Psychosis?
Psychosis is one of a number of psychotic disorders that usually develop between adolescence and young adulthood and affect the way the brain processes information, causing the individual to be unable to connect reality and imagination. People with psychosis may believe things that are not real and may fantasize about things that do not exist. They have delusional beliefs and may hallucinate. There is a change in their personality. There are changes, especially in the way the individual thinks and behaves. Psychosis can be caused by mental or physical illness, substance abuse, excessive stress, trauma. According to research, it is not known why this disorder, which is mostly seen in young people, is seen especially in young people.
What are the symptoms of atypical psychosis?
A person with psychosis has changes in their behavior, thoughts and personality. The person may have delusions and delusions. Apart from this, if we need to list the symptoms of psychosis in more detail:
- Having more difficulties in social life
- Problems focusing on a task
- Continuous negative states occurring in the thinking system
- Feeling uncomfortable and persistent discomfort
- Not taking care of personal care
- Not wanting to spend time in society, becoming lonely
- Being emotionless in certain situations and conditions
- Seeing, hearing and feeling things that are not there and different
- Ignoring and disregarding what is said
- The person does not see himself/herself as sufficient and willing in anything
- Failure to think clearly
What are the Types of Psychosis?
1. Atypical Psychosis
Atypical psychosis can be defined as an unclassifiable personality disorder with symptoms of more than one type of psychosis. Having a genetic predisposition and environmental factors play a role in the development of the disorder. Atypical psychosis can be treated with medication, but the possibility of relapse is high.
What are the Symptoms of Atypical Psychosis?
- More than half of patients diagnosed with atypical psychosis have mystical and abnormal thoughts (delusions). For example, these people have delusions that the apocalypse will break at any moment.
- In the early stages of the disease, behavioral disorders and asociality are common. Patients have difficulty communicating and distrust the environment. They tend to isolate themselves from society.
- Atypical psychosis also has physical effects. Loss of appetite and sudden weight loss are among these physical symptoms.
- In this type of psychosis, sleep patterns become unstable. The person, who is already asocial and shutting down, may spend the whole day in bed. Sometimes the person sleeps 3-4 hours a day or less. Therefore, as a result of sleep imbalances, attention deficit and forgetfulness problems may arise.
- Psychosis patients perceive the outside world as a threat. Paranoia similar to this is common in psychological illnesses such as schizophrenia and psychosis. The person who thinks that he/she is constantly being followed, watched and searched may become unable to leave the house over time.
2. Non-Organic Psychosis
In non-organic psychosis, the person is unable to connect the world with reality. In psychosis, which can be caused by environmental influences such as living conditions, most of the time, non-organic psychosis can occur due to the use of substances such as drugs.
What are the Symptoms of Non-Organic Psychosis?
The symptoms of this type of psychosis vary from person to person. In general, the symptoms of psychosis are the same. Hallucinations are seen in the disease. They can hear various voices. They are in some feelings and emotions that they cannot explain. At times it can be difficult for them to express this. Psychotic patients believe that they have special powers. Symptoms such as switching from topic to topic during speech and making connections with unrelated topics are among the common symptoms of the disorder.
3. Acute Psychosis
Acute psychosis is a one-off type of psychosis with a sudden onset. In some cases, acute psychosis may mark the early stage of chronic psychosis, but it can also cause recurrent episodes of psychosis. Acute psychosis can be caused by bereavement following a death, a broken marriage, unemployment, an accident, giving birth, or isolation from the social environment.
What are the symptoms of acute psychosis?
Symptoms of acute psychosis can be explained as experiencing short-term delusions and changes in thought due to these delusions, changes in perception as a result of delusions, low motivation and asociality.
4. Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia, a subtype of psychosis, is a serious brain disorder that distorts a person's thinking, actions, expression of emotions, perception of reality and disrupts their relationships with others. For a person to be diagnosed with schizophrenia, symptoms must persist for at least 6 months.
What are the Symptoms of Schizophrenia?
- Delusions These are strange beliefs that are not based on reality and that the person refuses to give up even if they are explained with factual information. For example, the person may believe that he or she can hear the thoughts of others, that he or she is God or the devil, or that others place thoughts in his or her head.
- Hallucinations: "unreal sensations" are perceived, such as seeing things that are not real, hearing voices, smelling strange odors, a "strange" taste in the mouth, and a sense of touch, even if no one is touching the body. The most common in people with schizophrenia is hearing voices (auditory hallucinations). The voices may comment on the person's behavior, harass the person or give orders.
- Disturbances in speech or behavior: These symptoms include a person's inability to think clearly and react correctly:
- using meaningless words and sentences that make no sense, making it difficult for the person to communicate and participate in conversation
- Moving quickly from one thought to another
- Moving slowly
- Lack of decision-making ability
- Writing excessive but meaningless things
- Forgetting or losing things
- Repetitive movements such as walking in circles
- Problems in making sense of everyday sights, sounds and emotions
Negative symptoms:
The word "negative" reflects the lack of certain normal behaviors in people with schizophrenia. Negative symptoms can be listed as follows:
- Lack of emotion and expression of emotion, or affect, thoughts and moods that do not fit the situation (e.g. crying instead of laughing at a joke)
- Withdrawal from family, friends and social activities
- Low energy
- Lack of motivation
- Lack of enjoyment of life and lack of interest in life
- Poor cleaning habits
- Problems at school, work and other activities
- Instability (being too happy or too sad or mood swings)
- Catatonia (immobilization in the same position for a very long time
What Causes Schizophrenia?
Genetic Transmission
There is a possibility that the disease can be passed from parent to child.
Brain Chemistry
People with psychosis have an imbalance of certain chemicals in the brain. They are either sensitive to a neurotransmitter called dopamine or they produce too much dopamine. An imbalance of dopamine affects the brain's reaction to certain impulses such as sounds, smells and sights, which can lead to hallucinations and delusions.
Brain Anomaly
New research has found abnormal brain structure and function in people with psychosis. However, not all people with schizophrenia have this kind of abnormality, and people without psychosis can also have such abnormalities.
Environmental Factors
Research has shown that social factors such as viral infection, poor social interactions or high-stress situations can trigger the illness in people with an inherited tendency to psychosis. Psychosis usually surfaces during puberty and adolescence when hormonal and physical changes occur in the body.
5. Delusional Disorder
Delusional disorders, also known as paranoia, are a subtype of psychosis and a rare type of illness. In delusional disorders, the patient has a single, well-organized delusion. This delusion is surrounded by a series of thoughts that do not correspond to reality. For example, in the Jealousy type, the person claims that their spouse/partner is cheating on them with someone else and cannot be convinced by rational evidence that this belief is not true. He/she tries to gather evidence in line with his/her delusion and interprets every piece of information in this direction. If left untreated, the person may even inflict violence on his/her partner.
6. Brief Psychotic Disorder
The main feature of Brief Psychotic Disorder is the presence of psychotic symptoms such as delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech and behavior that do not exceed one month, but not less than one day.
7. Schizophreniform Disorder
The symptoms of schizophreniform disorder, a subtype of psychosis, are very similar to those of schizophrenia, but last at least 1 month and up to 6 months. After this disorder resolves, they return to their previous level of functioning.
8. Schizoaffective Disorder
Schizoaffective disorder, a subtype of psychosis, includes both elements of psychosis and mood disorder. Psychotic symptoms refer to loss of contact with reality and may include hallucinations (seeing things or hearing voices that do not exist) and delusions (false, fixed beliefs). Mood disorder symptoms include very low or very high mood with sleep disturbances, changes in energy and appetite, impaired concentration and inability to perform daily tasks.
9. Psychotic Disorder Caused by the Use of Psychoactive Substances/Drugs
Delusions and hallucinations caused by the direct physiological effects of a substance (a substance-drug that can be abused).
10. Psychotic Disorder due to Medical Condition
Psychosis is a type of disorder in which the identified psychotic symptoms are caused by an underlying medical condition. Therefore, the underlying illness that causes this condition must be treated.
What is Psychosis Treatment?
With a combination of treatment and medication support to be applied in the treatment of psychosis, improvement can be seen in the symptoms that exist in the person.
In the treatment of psychosis, patients tend to harm themselves and others because they are overly anxious, worried or stressed. In this case, a doctor or medical staff can administer a fast-acting injection to relax and calm the patient. Psychosis is treated with a group of medications called antipsychotics, which are used to treat psychopathological disorders. These drugs play an effective role in reducing delusions and hallucinations and help the person to think more clearly and consciously. Antipsychotic drugs used to control the symptoms of the disease are not used for long periods of time. However, people with schizophrenia may have to take these medications for life. Cognitive behavioral therapy plays an important role in the treatment process in order for the patient with psychotic episodes to recognize and control the attacks. It helps the person to distinguish between reality and hallucinations. Cognitive behavioral therapy is more effective on the disorder that cannot be completely treated with antipsychotic drugs.
Do Psychosis Medications Work in Treatment?
Although antipsychotic medications used in the treatment of psychotic disorders are effective in improving the symptoms of the disorder, symptoms such as cognitive and residual symptoms, asociality, motivation and decreased quality of life can be observed. This may be because the medication is only effective to a certain extent or because the medication is not used as recommended. According to research, many patients discontinue medication, attributing this to a complete "state of well-being" as the negative effects of the disease on them are reduced by the medication. This leads to relapse and exacerbation of the disease. Therefore, the treatment process of the disease should be managed well, drug treatment should be done in the most effective way and should not be interrupted. At this point, cognitive behavioral therapy is very useful in learning how to manage the disease and the treatment process.
