Psychosis: A Symptom of Trauma, Genetics, and Mental Illness - Essay Sample

Introduction

Psychosis is not considered to be a disorder in and of itself. Instead, it is a symptom that can occur because of a variety of factors such trauma, genetics, physical illness, substance abuse, or mental health conditions which include depression, schizophrenia, or bipolar disorder. As per the National Institute of Mental Health, about 3 percent of individuals in the United States experience psychosis (Radua et al., 2018). The condition always starts slowly and, in the process, can cause changes that are no-specific in a manner an individual think and how they perceive some things. There is variation in the way psychosis manifests in different people but overall, individuals who servers from psychosis mainly hear, feel, or see things that are not there. Most individuals who have experienced the psychosis episode once are at high risk of getting it again. Hence, it is essential to seek treatment quickly and early. In most cases, the treatment is a combination of medication and psychotherapy.

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The treatment of psychosis sometimes can be a tricky process as most people who experience the illness do not always get connected to care that is most appropriate and specialized. Also, some individuals might be misdiagnosed in the process of trying to identify the disorder and others struggle a lot to get providers who are comfortable and accept to treat psychosis (Padhy et al., 2014). Some people who have psychosis might go for several months without receiving care and the longer they stay without treatment, the more it becomes difficult to control the symptoms as it is so difficult for individuals to navigate through the treatment process on their own. The paper addresses the causes, symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment of psychosis.

Causes of Psychosis

The causes of psychosis have dominated the subject of several intense types of research and various harsh debates. There are multiple attempts made to determine the existence of the actual cause if it is in an individual, or they are biological, socioenvironmental distress, or intrapsychic conflict (Radua et al., 2018). It has been put that; psychosis is a brain syndrome that is heritable that is caused by various psychosocial factors such as child disregard and mistreatment, poverty, poor urban living conditions, substance abuse, rape, and war among other ill actions in the society.

The other most common causes are genetics, as research illustrates that bipolar and schizophrenia may share a common cause from genetics. The other cause is brain changes which are changes in specific chemicals and alterations in brain structure (Gaebel & Zielasek, 2015). The brains of people with psychosis have a reduced grey matter which explains impacts on through processing. Also, it is caused by changes in levels of hormones or disrupted sleep patterns, as postpartum psychosis occurs after giving birth that is within two weeks.

Signs and Symptoms of Psychosis

The most common signs and symptoms of psychosis are delusions which are false beliefs experienced by an individual, primarily based on suspicion or fear of some things that are not real. Also, a person suffering from psychosis experience Hallucinations which are seeing, feeling or hearing things that do not exist in the real world. The third sign is disordered thinking where the patient makes strange connections like jumping between unrelated topics. Also, difficulty in concentration is another sign with catatonia being collective among psychosis patients which refers to unresponsiveness. More so there are milder symptoms of psychosis at its initial stage which comprises of distorted perceptions, depression, feelings of suspicion, general anxiety, sleep problems, and obsessive thinking.

The symptom of hallucination can impact the patient's senses, such as sound, taste, sight, touch, and smell. The common hallucinations experienced are hearing various voices talking, mostly negatively about the patient, a voice that keeps on repeating what the patient thinks, then a voice that gives a commentary on the actions of a patient. On the other hand, the symptom of delusion is divided into paranoid delusions and delusions of grandeur. In paranoid delusions, a patient becomes unduly suspicious of organizations and individuals as they believe others will cause harm to them. While for delusions of grandeur, the patient holds a strong false belief in possessing a particular authority or power and sometimes they belief to a b world leader.

Diagnosis of Psychosis

Here, the available methods and tests of psychosis diagnosis are discussed. When the early diagnosis is carried out, the long-term outcomes are improved; the initial diagnosis is not always achieved. Milder psychosis that can result to schizophrenia is mostly untreated for about two years, and full psychosis mostly takes several years before medical professionals are drawn in to examine the patient (Anderson et al., 2013). To enable successful early diagnosis of psychosis, health professionals usually, consider some changes among young individuals; such changes are increased social withdrawal, increased agitation or distress and not able to explain the reason for such action, or the individual perform worse for an extended period at work or school.

Psychosis itself does not have a biological test. If laboratory tests are carried out, it is done to rule out other medical problems that provide an alternative explanation (Padhy et al., 2014). It is mainly diagnosed by clinical examination through questions asked by a medical practitioner and answered by the patient and family members; it also involves observation of the patient's history. The health professional examines the patients and asks concerning their experiences, symptoms, daily activities, and thoughts. A doctor also might ask the patient about the family history on psychiatric illnesses.

In the diagnosis process, some medical conditions are ruled out first; one of them is delirium which is the sudden onset of a state of confusion in the patient. In the process of diagnosis, a doctor can check for intoxication with drugs in the history of the patient. The intoxication to be tested is toxins, legal and illegal drugs consumption where a urine sample is taken for a checkup. Another diagnosis is brain scans which can be done in the early stages of medical attention to reverse and treat some conditions (Anderson et al., 2013). Electroencephalography testing can be initiated to records the electrical activity of the brain and assist in ruling out head injury, epilepsy, or delirium as possible causes of the symptoms of the psychosis.

Treatment of Psychosis

The treatment involves the use of antipsychotic drugs as the drugs are effective and reduce psychiatric disorders symptoms. Doctors mostly utilize what is termed as the second-generation antipsychotics to treat psychosis. The World Health Organization mostly recommend the use of clozapine to treat psychosis, instead of the second-generation antipsychotics, which are primarily utilized in the United States. In treating psychosis, two faces are involved, such as the acute phases and lifelong phase (Bergink et al., 2015). The acute phase involves treatment of the initial episodes of the psychosis, while the lifelong phase covers maintaining the therapy. In the acute phase of the treatment, the patient is often hospitalized with use of rapid tranquilization where a medication that acts very fast is given to the patient to relax him or her and to make sure they do not harm others or themselves (Bergink et al., 2015). In the lifelong phase, the treatment is more of maintenance, and it is in the community where antipsychotics assist in preventing further episodes of psychosis. Here, family members are brought into the process to take care of the patient.

References

Anderson, K. K., Fuhrer, R., Wynant, W., Abrahamowicz, M., Buckeridge, D. L., & Malla, A. (2013). Patterns of health services use before the first diagnosis of psychosis: the importance of primary care. Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology, 48(9), 1389-1398. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00127-013-0665-3

Bergink, V., Burgerhout, K. M., Koorengevel, K. M., Kamperman, A. M., Hoogendijk, W. J., Lambregtse-van den Berg, M. P., & Kushner, S. A. (2015). Treatment of psychosis and mania in the postpartum period. American Journal of Psychiatry, 172(2), 115-123. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2014.13121652

Gaebel, W., & Zielasek, J. (2015). Focus on psychosis. Dialogues in clinical neuroscience, 17(1), 9. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4421906/ https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20490

Padhy, S. K., Sarkar, S., Davuluri, T., & Patra, B. N. (2014). Urban living and psychosis-an overview. Asian journal of psychiatry, 12, 17-22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajp.2014.09.006

Radua, J., RamellaCravaro, V., Ioannidis, J. P., Reichenberg, A., Phiphopthatsanee, N., Amir, T., & McGuire, P. (2018). What causes psychosis? An umbrella review of risk and protective factors. World Psychiatry, 17(1), 49-66.