Psychosis can present as a single, transient episode or as a chronic condition. Pathologies in perception and thinking characterize it. Individuals often report that reality or their environment has changed.
Types:
- Exogenous Psychosis: Triggered by external factors:
- Organic pathologies of the CNS causing degenerative changes
- Psychoactive substances
- Hallucinogenic substancesMarijuana
- Alcohol
- Intoxication from various substances
- Endogenous Psychosis: Arises spontaneously.
Symptoms:
Perceptual Pathologies:
- Hallucinations:
Auditory
Tactile (sensory)
Olfactory
Visceral (sensations in internal organs)
- Illusions:
Verbal illusions: a person hears insults or mocking in other people’s conversations.
Types of Delusions:
- Paranoid Delusions: Believing one is being persecuted by others, organizations, or government structures intending to harm or damage their reputation.
- Referential Delusions: a belief that events, gestures, conversations… are somehow related to a person.
- Grandiose Delusions: Inflated beliefs about one’s abilities, such as having unique talents like telepathy or prophecy.
- Nihilistic Delusions: Total hopelessness, such as believing the world is ending or everything is meaningless.
- Hypochondriacal Delusions: Unfounded belief of having a severe illness despite medical evidence to the contrary.
- Religious Delusions: Varying content, such as feeling sinful or perceiving oneself as a messiah.
- Jealous Delusions: otherwise known as morbid, particularly in marital contexts, having a sense of betrayal despite evidence to the contrary.
- Erotomanic Delusions: Believing that someone unattainable loves them.
- Delusions of Influence: Believing that external forces control one’s thoughts or actions.
- Thought Insertion or Withdrawal: Believing that thoughts are being implanted or removed by an external force through telepathy or other means.
Immediate medication treatment is necessary.