About Psychosis
About psychosis
Psychosis is a term used to describe an array of signs and symptoms suggesting a form of thinking that breaks from reality. Psychosis is not pathognomonic (a sign or symptom specific to a disease or condition) of psychiatric illness. It is a nonspecific cluster of signs and symptoms that may occur in a broad array of medical, neurologic and surgical disorders, or as a consequence of pharmacologic treatment, substance abuse or the withdrawal of drugs and alcohol.
Description of Psychoses
Psychosis is a syndrome. The predominant characteristics of this syndrome are used in determining its classification of either organic or functional mental disorders.
Psychosis can be due to organic disorders (like thyroid abnormalities) which cause structural defects or physiologic dysfunction of the brain. There is substantial evidence that there are chemical abnormalities in the brains of people with this problem.
Psychosis is characterized by an adherence either to fixed, false beliefs outside the normal range of a person’s subculture, or by a hallucinatory experience or by what is known as thought disorder: thinking that does not follow any rational line. False beliefs that cause a person to suffer, produce conflict with others or render a person unable to comfortably adapt to the demands of life, are delusions if they are not relinquished when the person is presented with adequate evidence to the contrary. This definition allows for idiosyncrasy and for differences in the beliefs of a person’s subculture from those of the majority of the population.
Types Of Psychoses
The major types of psychoses are……
Organic Brain Disorders. One of the most common signs of organic brain disorders is delirium. Specifically, delirium involves disturbances of attention, memory, and orientation. A demented person is usually disoriented in terms of time and space, and has incoherent thoughts and speech.
Psychosis Due to Drugs and Alcohol. Substance abuse is one of the most common causes of psychosis. Combining alcohol and drugs such as barbiturates may be fatal. Inappropriate use of medications can cause brain damage so severe that the person is left in permanent “vegetative” coma.
Some of the most frightening and disorienting mental reactions can come from ingestion of the hallucinogenic drugs: lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), mescaline, psilocybin or phencyclidine (PCP – also called “angel dust”), and occasionally, marijuana or hashish.
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