Category: Hospitals

Bipolar Disorder with Psychotic Features

Some people who have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder will experience episodes of psychosis during mania or depression. These episodes cause hallucinations, delusions, disordered thinking, and a lack of awareness of reality. While in extreme situations hospitalization may be necessary, most bipolar patients with psychotic features can manage these episodes with ongoing, professional treatment.

Bipolar disorder can trigger psychotic symptoms, which may include hallucinations or delusions during mania, depression, or both.

Psychosis can be distressing, but it can also be managed, treated, and even prevented with the right medications and therapy with experienced mental health professionals.

What Is Bipolar Disorder?

Bipolar and related disorders are mood disorders characterized by episodes of mania and depression. Manic episodes cause a feeling of euphoria, unusually high energy and activity levels, and irritability. Depressive episodes cause sadness, hopelessness, fatigue, loss of interest in activities, and other symptoms of depression.

Depending on the type of the condition, a person with bipolar disorder may cycle through both of these moods or may experience depression with a less extreme type of mania called hypomania. A low-grade but long-term type of bipolar disorder is called cyclothymia. Bipolar I, the disorder that triggers both depression and mania, may also cause symptoms of psychosis.

Psychosis Is a Specifier for Bipolar Disorder

When a medical or mental health professional is diagnosing bipolar disorder they may use specifiers. These are added details that describe an individual’s experience and symptoms. Specifiers include atypical features, like significant weight gain or sleeping too much, and psychotic features. If someone is diagnosed with bipolar disorder with psychotic features it means he or she meets the diagnostic criteria for bipolar but also has symptoms of psychosis.

What Is Psychosis?

Psychosis is a state of mind and a set of symptoms characterized by losing contact with reality. It is not a condition in and of itself but rather a group of symptoms that can be triggered by certain mental illnesses, like bipolar disorder, and by medical conditions, brain injuries, substance misuse, and some medications. Someone with bipolar disorder may experience psychotic symptoms during a manic or a depressive episode. The specific symptoms and their character or content vary by individual.

Symptoms of Bipolar Psychosis

Exactly what one person will experience when having psychotic symptoms during an episode of mania or depression varies. However, in general psychotic symptoms can be grouped into a few categories:

  • Hallucinations. A hallucination is something that is sensed—heard, seen, felt, tasted, or smelled—that seems real but that is not real. Hallucinations may include seeing things that aren’t there or hearing non-existent voices.
  • Delusions. A delusion is a false belief that persists in spite of evidence. Delusions can be paranoid, grandiose, persecutory, jealous, or a mixture of types.
  • Confused thinking. Psychosis can cause disordered, racing, and irrational thoughts. To an observer this person may talk very fast, jump from one topic to another, and not make a lot of sense.
  • Poor self-awareness. In the middle of a psychotic episode a person will not be aware that his or her beliefs or hallucinations are false. This can trigger fear and significant distress.

Psychosis in bipolar disorder tends to match a person’s current mood. So, for instance, during mania a person may have grandiose delusions, believing he or she is more talented and capable of doing something, or even famous and rich. During a depressive mood those delusions will take a downturn, and may include things like the paranoid belief that someone is out to get them.   more

Split (2017) – Hedwig’s Dance Scene

FILM DESCRIPTION:
Though Kevin (James McAvoy) has evidenced 23 personalities to his trusted psychiatrist, Dr. Fletcher (Betty Buckley), there remains one still submerged who is set to materialize and dominate all of the others. Compelled to abduct three teenage girls led by the willful, observant Casey, Kevin reaches a war for survival among all of those contained within him — as well as everyone around him — as the walls between his compartments shatter.

 

Dissociative identity disorder (DID) [formally known as multiple personality disorder]

DID Fact Sheet

What Is Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)?

Dissociative identity disorder (DID), previously referred to as multiple personality disorder, is a dissociative disorder involving a disturbance of identity in which two or more separate and distinct personality states (or identities) control an individual’s behavior at different times. When under the control of one identity, a person is usually unable to remember some of the events that occurred while other personalities were in control. The different identities, referred to as alters, may exhibit differences in speech, mannerisms, attitudes, thoughts and gender orientation. The alters may even present physical differences, such as allergies, right-or-left handedness or the need for eyeglass prescriptions. These differences between alters are often quite striking.

A person living with DID may have as few as two alters or as many as 100. The average number is about 10. Often alters are stable over time, continuing to play specific roles in the person’s life for years. Some alters may harbor aggressive tendencies, directed toward individuals in the person’s environment or toward other alters within the person.

At the time a person living with DID first seeks professional help, he or she is usually not aware of their condition. A very common complaint in people affected by DID is episodes of amnesia, or time loss. These individuals may be unable to remember events in all or part of a proceeding time period. They may repeatedly encounter unfamiliar people who claim to know them, find themselves somewhere without knowing how they got there or find items that they don’t remember purchasing among their possessions.

What Are The Symptoms Of DID?

Often people living with DID are depressed or even suicidal and self-mutilation is common in this group. Approximately one-third of individuals affected complain of auditory or visual hallucinations.

While the causes are unknown, statistics show that DID occurs in 0.01 to 1 percent of the general population. DID is a serious mental illness that occurs across all ethnic groups and all income levels. It affects women nine times more than men.

In addition to experiencing separate identities, individuals living with DID may also experience many other symptoms. Some of these symptoms include:

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Seasonal affective disorder (SAD)

Overview

Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a type of depression that’s related to changes in seasons — SAD begins and ends at about the same times every year. If you’re like most people with SAD, your symptoms start in the fall and continue into the winter months, sapping your energy and making you feel moody. These symptoms often resolve during the spring and summer months. Less often, SAD causes depression in the spring or early summer and resolves during the fall or winter months.

Treatment for SAD may include light therapy (phototherapy), psychotherapy and medications.

Don’t brush off that yearly feeling as simply a case of the “winter blues” or a seasonal funk that you have to tough out on your own. Take steps to keep your mood and motivation steady throughout the year.

 

Symptoms

In most cases, seasonal affective disorder symptoms appear during late fall or early winter and go away during the sunnier days of spring and summer. Less commonly, people with the opposite pattern have symptoms that begin in spring or summer. In either case, symptoms may start out mild and become more severe as the season progresses.

Signs and symptoms of SAD may include:

  • Feeling listless, sad or down most of the day, nearly every day
  • Losing interest in activities you once enjoyed
  • Having low energy and feeling sluggish
  • Having problems with sleeping too much
  • Experiencing carbohydrate cravings, overeating and weight gain
  • Having difficulty concentrating
  • Feeling hopeless, worthless or guilty
  • Having thoughts of not wanting to live

    Seasonal changes and bipolar disorder

    People who have bipolar disorder are at increased risk of seasonal affective disorder. In some people with bipolar disorder, episodes of mania may be linked to a specific season. For example, spring and summer can bring on symptoms of mania or a less intense form of mania (hypomania), anxiety, agitation and irritability. They may also experience depression during the fall and winter months.   more

Paraphrenia: Causes, Symptoms And Treatment

Paraphrenia is a type of mental disorder characterized by paranoid delusions. The affected individual experiences imaginary fears or anxieties that are often exaggerated, but do not undergo significant loss of intellectual capabilities, such as memory and daily routine habits.

Although paraphrenia presents symptoms similar to schizophrenia, it often occurs only in the elderly, above the age of 60 and is also quite a rare condition. Schizophrenia, on the other hand, is often reported in teenagers, young adults, as well as middle-aged people.

 

Paraphrenia is, in the majority of the cases, not a very severe ailment. Nevertheless, it is absolutely essential to seek immediate medical care, as soon as typical indications of paraphrenia are recognized in any older person, to ensure timely treatment and efficient management of brain-related irregularities.

Causes

The main factors contributing to the development of paraphrenia in aged persons include:

Severe Neurological Illnesses

When the brain undergoes significant physical modifications, due to a tumour, stroke, grave injury, nerve or blood vessel damage, other neurodegenerative conditions, it affects its normal functioning and response to external stimuli. These abnormal instances could give rise to paraphrenia.

Stressful Personal Situations

Older adults who do not engage in regular social contact, are extremely disconnected from normal events going on around them, have no family or friends and struggle to sustain themselves suffer from serious emotional trauma to the brain. These challenging circumstances, in some cases, lead to paraphrenia.   more

Delusional Disorder, Erotomanic Type, Exacerbated by Social Media Use

Erotomania is a form of delusional disorder in which an individual believes that another person, usually of higher status, is in love with him. It is a relatively rare condition, and while the incidence is unknown, the lifetime prevalence of delusional disorder is 0.2% []. Consequently, many psychiatrists do not encounter or may fail to recognize erotomania in their clinical practice. Although many theories exist for the etiology of delusional disorder, recent postulations have suggested that social media networks may play a role in enmeshing technology into the delusional systems of those predisposed to psychosis []. Social media networks are now ubiquitous aspects of modern society, and this implication cannot be overlooked. We present the case of a 24-year-old male with delusions of multiple women being romantically interested in him. He then engaged in stalking behavior via social media. Although social media has been linked to schizophrenia exacerbations, this appears to be the first identified case of exacerbated delusional disorder [].

Mr. L is a 24-year-old male with no past family or personal psychiatric history who was brought to the emergency department by police for a psychiatric evaluation. The patient was discovered trespassing on local college property despite having been issued a No Contact Order following multiple complaints to the police and college administration by a female student. The student reported that he had been stalking her via Twitter and looking for her on the college campus. To substantiate her claims, she printed out a multitude of messages he sent her and gave these to the police and college administration. He proceeded to contact her several additional times, each time changing his Twitter username. He had been a student at the college; however, he was placed on suspension and ordered to remain off of campus property due to this behavior.   more

Mental Illness and the facts

What is mental illness?

 

Mental illnesses are medical conditions that disrupt a person’s thinking, feeling, mood, ability to relate to others and daily functioning. Just as diabetes is a disorder of the pancreas, mental illnesses are medical conditions that often result in a diminished capacity for coping with the ordinary demands of life.

Serious mental illnesses include major depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), panic disorder, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and borderline personality disorder. The good news about mental illness is that recovery is possible.

Mental illnesses can affect persons of any age, race, religion, or income. Mental illnesses are not the result of personal weakness, lack of character or poor upbringing. Mental illnesses are treatable. Most people diagnosed with a serious mental illness can experience relief from their symptoms by actively participating in an individual treatment plan.

In addition to medication treatment, psycho-social treatment such as cognitive behavioral therapy, interpersonal therapy, peer support groups and other community services can also be components of a treatment plan and that assist with recovery. The availability of transportation, diet, exercise, sleep, friends and meaningful paid or volunteer activities contribute to overall health and wellness, including mental illness recovery.   more

Dementia

Dementia

 

Overview

Dementia is a term used to describe a group of symptoms affecting memory, thinking and social abilities severely enough to interfere with your daily life. It isn’t a specific disease, but several diseases can cause dementia.

Though dementia generally involves memory loss, memory loss has different causes. Having memory loss alone doesn’t mean you have dementia, although it’s often one of the early signs of the condition.

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of a progressive dementia in older adults, but there are a number of other causes of dementia. Depending on the cause, some dementia symptoms might be reversible.

 

Symptoms

Dementia symptoms vary depending on the cause, but common signs and symptoms include:

Cognitive changes

  • Memory loss, which is usually noticed by someone else
  • Difficulty communicating or finding words
  • Difficulty with visual and spatial abilities, such as getting lost while driving
  • Difficulty reasoning or problem-solving
  • Difficulty handling complex tasks
  • Difficulty with planning and organizing
  • Difficulty with coordination and motor functions
  • Confusion and disorientation

Psychological changes

  • Personality changes
  • Depression
  • Anxiety
  • Inappropriate behavior
  • Paranoia
  • Agitation
  • Hallucinations   more