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Medical Author:

Roxanne Dryden-Edwards, MD

Roxanne Dryden-Edwards, MD

Dr. Roxanne Dryden-Edwards is an adult, child, and adolescent psychiatrist. She is a former Chair of the Committee on Developmental Disabilities for the American Psychiatric Association, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, and Medical Director of the National Center for Children and Families in Bethesda, Maryland.

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Medical Editor:

Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD

Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD

Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD, is a U.S. board-certified Anatomic Pathologist with subspecialty training in the fields of Experimental and Molecular Pathology. Dr. Stöppler's educational background includes a BA with Highest Distinction from the University of Virginia and an MD from the University of North Carolina. She completed residency training in Anatomic Pathology at Georgetown University followed by subspecialty fellowship training in molecular diagnostics and experimental pathology.

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In this Article

• Psychotic disorder facts
• What are the different types of psychotic disorders?
• How common are psychotic disorders?
• What are causes and risk factors for psychotic disorders in children, teenagers, and adults?
• What are psychotic disorder symptoms and signs?
• How are psychotic disorders diagnosed?
• What are the treatments for psychotic disorders?
• What are potential complications of medications used to treat psychotic disorders?
• Is it possible to treat psychotic disorders without medication?
• What are complications of psychotic disorders?
• What is the prognosis for people with a psychotic disorder?
• Can psychotic disorders be prevented?
• Where can people find additional information about psychotic disorders?
• Patient Comments: Psychotic Disorders - Experience
• Patient Comments: Psychotic Disorders - Treatments
• Find a local Psychiatrist in your town
• Psychotic Disorders Index

Usually with any psychotic disorder, the person's inner world and behavior notably change.

Behavior changes might include the following:

• Social withdrawal
• Agitation or anxiety
• Depersonalization (intense anxiety and a feeling of being unreal)
• Loss of appetite
• Worsened hygiene
• Disorganized speech and behaviors
• Catatonic behavior, in which the affected person's body may be rigid and the person may be unresponsive

Changes/problems with thinking that may occur in a psychotic disorder include

• delusions (beliefs with no basis in reality),
• hallucinations (for example, hearing, seeing, or perceiving things not actually present),
• the sense of being controlled by outside forces,
• disorganized thoughts.

A person with a psychotic disorder may not have any outward appearance of being ill. In other cases, the illness may be more apparent, causing bizarre behaviors. For example, a person suffering from psychosis may wear aluminum foil in the belief that it will stop one's thoughts from being broadcasted and protect against malicious waves entering the brain.

People with psychosis vary widely in their behavior as they struggle with an illness beyond their control. Some may ramble in illogical sentences or react with uncontrolled anger or violence to a perceived threat. Characteristics of a psychotic disorder may also include phases in which the affected individuals seem to lack personality, movement, and emotion (also called a flat affect). People with a psychotic disorder may alternate between these extremes. Their behavior may or may not be predictable.

In order to better understand psychotic disorders, the concept of clusters of symptoms is often used. Thus, people with psychosis can experience symptoms that may be grouped under the following categories:

• Positive symptoms: hearing voices or otherwise hallucinating, suspiciousness, feeling under constant surveillance, delusions, or making up words without a meaning (neologisms)
• Negative (or deficit) symptoms: social withdrawal, difficulty in expressing emotions (in extreme cases called blunted affect), difficulty in taking care of themselves, inability to feel pleasure (These symptoms cause severe impairment.)
• Cognitive symptoms: difficulties attending to and processing of information, in understanding the environment, and in remembering simple tasks
• Affective (or mood) symptoms: often manifested by depression, accounting for a very high rate of attempted suicide in people suffering from schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders

Postpartum psychosis usually develops within the first three months after childbirth, often within three to 14 days. Symptoms may include auditory or visual hallucinations, delusions, or rapid mood swings. The hallucinations may have themes of violence toward herself or her baby. This condition may be associated with significant problems in thinking, ranging from mental confusion and indecision to intrusive and bizarre thoughts. Also, symptoms can arise and disappear suddenly, with the mother appearing lucid one moment and psychotic the next.