Psychosis

Psychosis 

 The clinical term psychosis refers to a state of mind whereas a loss of touch with reality occurs. Psychotic features are present in several psychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, psychotic depression and substance-induced psychosis. For psychiatrists, psychosis is usually seen as a symptom of a mental illness and not as a diagnostic per se. Psychosis typically involves delusions and hallucinations and may bring about other problems such as thought disorder, violence and difficulty in social interaction, as well as coping with daily tasks.

People with psychosis may lose touch with reality. The history of science is the back-and-forth movement of trial-and-error advances and retreats, punctuated by moments of brilliance and marred by periods of excess. (Robert A. Burton, A Skeptic's Guide to the Mind: What Neuroscience Can and Cannot Tell Us About Ourselves). Image: Elena

Many causes have been discussed as explanatory for psychosis, particularly psychosis seen in schizophrenia. For example, persons with schizophrenia have been demonstrated by studies as having different brain structures in terms of lateral ventricles, as well as a chemical brain imbalance in terms of dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter produced by the brain. Neurotransmitters are the brain’s chemical messengers and dopamine is the neurotransmitter involved in pleasure and reward circuitry. The right amount of dopamine must be produced by the body, with too much dopamine resulting in schizophrenic symptoms, and too little dopamine associated with Parkinson’s disease. However, researchers have debated this conclusion and some even cast it aside as being too simplistic. Catatonia may also be present in psychosis.

Psychotic delusions may mean one believes one has special powers. Image: Elena

Another problem in psychosis may be impairments in social cognition. Social cognition in broad terms refers to information we encode and store about other members of our species, or about our social world. Indeed, human beings are very social by nature and humans have been shown to exert great effort to obtain social rewards. Conversely, social rejection has been shown by neuroimaging studies to light up the same areas in the brain as physical pain. Rejection hurts and it is not anything new, as anyone who ever has gone through a heartbreak knows. Regardless, social cognition may be severely impaired in individuals with psychosis.