Psychosis is a psychological disorder in which the person’s mental state is altered, causing him to live on two worlds simultaneously, in the real world and in his imagination, but he cannot differentiate them and often merge.
The main symptom of psychosis is delirium, that is, the person in a state of psychosis cannot distinguish reality from fantasy and therefore does not know how to position himself in time and space and has many schisms.A psychotic may think the downstairs neighbor wants to kill him, even if he knows no one lives in the apartment downstairs.
A psychotic person is usually restless, aggressive and impulsive, but the main symptoms of psychosis include:
Psychosis usually occurs in young people and adolescents and may be transient, called a brief psychotic disorder, or be related to other psychiatric disorders such as bipolar disorder, Alzheimer’s disease, epilepsy, schizophrenia or depression, and is also common among addicts.
The treatment of psychosis should be directed by the psychiatrist and consists of taking antipsychotic and mood stabilizer medications such as risperidone, haloperidol, lorazepam or carbamazepine.
Many times, in addition to medicines, it is necessary to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital where electrical appliance treatments for electroconvulsive therapy can be performed, however, the Ministry of Health only approves this therapy in specific situations such as the imminent risk of suicide, catatonia or malignant neuroleptic syndrome, for example.
Hospitalization can take 1 to 2 months for the person to improve and can be discharged because it can no longer endanger their own life and the lives of others, but to keep the person under control, the psychiatrist can still keep medications that could be taken for years.
In addition, weekly sessions with the psychologist or psychiatrist can be helpful in reorganizing ideas and feeling better, as long as the person is taking the medication correctly.
In the case of postpartum psychosis, the doctor may also prescribe medications and when psychosis endangers the baby’s life, the mother may be removed from the baby, even requiring hospitalization.Usually, after treatment, symptoms go away and the woman returns to normal, but there is a risk that she will have a new psychotic condition in another postpartum.
Psychosis does not have a single cause, but several related factors can lead to its onset.Factors that contribute to the development of psychosis include:
To arrive at the diagnosis of psychosis, the psychiatrist must personally observe the person to try to identify the symptoms he or she develops, but may also request blood tests, x-rays, tomography and MRI to try to identify if there are any changes that could cause psychosis or mislead other diseases.