The 8 types of Psychotic Disorders
The psychotic disorders they are serious psychopathologies in which the person loses contact with reality. The most characteristic symptoms are the hallucinations and the delusions.
Delusions are defined as false beliefs. That is, erroneous beliefs of reality about an existing fact or object. They are a distortion of an external stimulus. For example, a patient with delusions may think that someone is following him because there is a conspiracy against him.
In contrast, hallucinations are false perceptions, such as hearing, seeing or feeling something that does not really exist . These perceptions are invented by the mind and are not the product of the distortion of any present object, because something is perceived without taking external stimuli into account. For example, a patient with schizophrenia may believe that they talk to him through the shower drain.
Delusions are characteristic of delusional disorder, while hallucinations predominate in schizophrenic disorder. Both psychopathologies are the most well-known psychotic disorders, but there are also other less popular ones.
Types of Psychotic Disorders
According to the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM IV) there are the following psychotic disorders:
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a disorder in which the person who suffers it has hallucinations and disturbing thoughts that isolate him from social activity . Schizophrenia is a very serious pathology and its treatment requires the use of drugs so that the patient does not suffer outbreaks. Although there is no cure, there are effective treatments so that patients with this condition can enjoy their lives.
The symptoms of schizophrenia are divided into positive and negative. The first are manifestations that the patient makes or experiences, and that healthy people do not usually present. Negative symptoms are those things that the patient stops doing and that healthy people can perform on a daily basis, such as thinking fluently and with logic.
Positive symptoms
- Hallucinations
- Delusions
- Disorganized thoughts
- Disorganized Behaviors or Catatonia
Negative symptoms
- Lack of interest or initiative
- Apathy
- Social withdrawal or depression
- Lack of emotional response
Types of Schizophrenia
There are different types of schizophrenia:
- Paranoid schizophrenia : It's the most usual. Predominance of delirious ideas.
- Hebephrenic schizophrenia : Predominance of emotional alterations. For example, the patient laughs for no reason at all.
- Catatonic schizophrenia : Characterized by motor alterations. With persistent immobility, although it may alternate with agitation crisis.
- Undifferentiated schizophrenia : When a schizophrenia does not meet the criteria of the previous types or presents several symptoms at the same time of the types mentioned above.
Delirious Disorder
Delirious disorder, also known as paranoia, it is characterized because the patient has one or more delusional ideas and is convinced that they are true . For example, when walking through a shopping center, he believes that some people (who he does not even know) are watching him to send information to someone who wants to kill him. There are several types of delirious disorders according to the nature of the delirium (for example, persecutory delusional disorder).
Regarding treatment, patients often resist and, in many cases, tend to hide the delirium, which is known as "delirium encapsulated". The treatment includes psychotherapy and the use of antipsychotics.
Brief Psychotic Disorder
As its name suggests, it is a psychopathology in which a psychotic outbreak may appear with the same symptoms as a schizophrenic disorder, but lasting a few days and it does not affect the patient again. Therefore, it disappears without leaving sequels. It is usually a response to a traumatic event such as the death of a family member or a time of extreme stress.
Schizophreniform disorder
Schizophreniform disorder is similar to brief psychotic disorder, but lasts between 1 month and 6 months. The patients show different symptoms of schizophrenia : delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, catatonia, and / or negative symptoms.
Schizoaffective disorder
In this type of psychotic disorder called schizoaffective disorder, the patient experiences symptoms of schizophrenia along with symptoms of a mood disorder , either at the same time or alternately.
Shared Psychotic Disorder or "folie à deux"
Shared psychotic disorder is a strange and unusual pathology, since there are two people who share the same delusions and hallucinations . The exact cause of this psychotic disorder is unknown; however, it is possible that stress and social isolation play an important role in their development.
Substance-induced psychotic disorder
This type of psychotic disorder It is characterized by being caused by intoxication due to the use of drugs or drugs . The symptoms usually appear quickly and last a short time, from a few hours to several days, but then the effects of the drugs disappear.
The most common symptoms are visual hallucinations, disorientation, and memory problems. Some substances that cause this disorder can be: marijuana, alcohol, cocaine, amphetamines, hallucinogenic inhalants, MDMA, opiates, sedatives, hypnotics and anxiolytics.
Psychotic disorder due to a medical illness
The psychotic disorder due to medical illness occurs when the symptoms of said disorder are the result of diseases that affect the function of the brain (for example, a brain tumor).
