Brief Psychotic Disorder
Brief psychotic disorder, as its name implies, is a short, sudden episode with symptoms lasting for less than a month. A psychotic disorder causes a person to lose touch with reality. The person may experience hallucinations, delusions, unpredictable and irrational behavior and have incoherent speech.
A hallucination is characterized by a patient perceiving something that is not present. Hallucinations can be auditory, visual or tactile and the most common in psychiatric disorders is auditory hallucinations. Ingestion of substances such as PCP, LSD and mushrooms are known to cause visual hallucinations. A delusion is a belief held by a person even when confronted with facts that prove the belief to be false.
Sovereign Health of Arizona offers effective and evidence-based treatment programs for patients who have experienced a brief psychotic disorder.
Brief Psychotic Disorder Symptoms
- Disorganized thinking
- Speech or language that doesn’t make sense
- Unusual behavior and dress
- Memory problems
- Disorientation or confusion
- Changes in eating or sleeping habits, energy level or weight
- Inability to make decisions
Anyone observing a person with a psychotic disorder will notice very strange behavior, but to the patient the symptoms are completely real.
Diagnosis Of Brief Psychotic Disorder
A doctor will carry out a physical examination and take a medical history. After ruling out any physical cause for the symptoms, a referral is usually made to a psychologist or other qualified clinician. These specialists use specially designed interview techniques and tools to evaluate a person for a psychotic disorder.
What Causes Brief Psychotic Disorder?
In most cases, the disorder is directly caused by a major stress or traumatic event such as witnessing a violent crime. Women who have experienced violence, rape, psychological abuse, the death of a loved one or a natural disaster may experience a brief psychotic disorder as a result. Soldiers returning from war may experience a brief psychotic disorder. A number of factors may create a vulnerability to develop brief psychotic disorder. A genetic link is suspected because the disease is more common in people whose family members have mood disorders such as depression or bipolar disorder. Another theory is that poor coping skills against stressful situation increase vulnerability.