Duration

The duration of a psychosis varies greatly and depends, among other things, on the triggering cause. In addition, the time of the beginning of treatment plays an important role. The faster a drug therapy is initiated, the better a psychosis can be contained. Psychoses can last for a few days, but untreated they can last for several months or longer.

Prognosis

Patients who experience a psychosis for the first time in their lives have a relatively good chance that such an episode will not occur again. However, the prognosis depends largely on the cause. If it is a drug-induced psychosis and has occurred for the first time, consistent avoidance of drugs can lead to a complete recovery.

Repeated drug use in patients who have suffered a drug-induced psychosis significantly increases the risk of recurrence of psychotic episodes. Patients who have had their first psychosis in schizophrenia have a 1/3 chance of a complete recovery, while the second third of patients have a course in which periods of symptomlessness alternate with psychotic phases. In about one third of the patients a chronic course with permanent symptoms occurs. In chronic forms, cognitive disorders as well as disorders of concentration, emotions and drive are added to the symptoms of psychosis. In severe cases, this can make early retirement necessary.

Differentiation of the clinical picture

Drug psychosis is referred to in technical jargon as drug-induced or substance-induced psychosis. It is a psychotic episode triggered by the use of one or more psychotropic substances. Examples of possible psychogenic substances are alcohol, cannabis, amphetamines, cocaine, LSD or crystal meth (metamphetamines).

There are people who are more susceptible (more vulnerable) to the development of psychosis than others. Especially in these people, the use of drugs can trigger a psychosis. Drug psychoses are treated with drugs in the same way as other types of psychosis.

However, complete abstinence is also essential in the treatment of such psychoses. In many cases this can prevent a recurrence of the psychosis, but not always. The symptoms of drug psychosis are similar to those of other forms of psychosis.

Hallucinations, delusions, anxiety, thinking disorders, ego disorders and concentration disorders occur. Psychosis is a term that is actually no longer used in this form today. In psychiatric jargon, it is more likely to be a psychotic disorder or a psychotic episode.

A psychosis describes a condition in which the person affected perceives reality inadequately. He or she suffers from hallucinations and delusions and can no longer distinguish real from unreal. Such a psychosis can – as described above – have numerous possible causes.

Schizophrenia, in turn, is one of the possible causes of psychosis. Schizophrenia is a mental illness whose main symptoms include the psychotic disorder with all its symptoms. Patients with an acute psychotic episode of schizophrenia therefore suffer from delusions and hallucinations.

Thinking disorders and ego disorders are also typical. In addition, schizophrenia often leads to so-called negative symptoms. These include symptoms such as reduced affect, loss of drive, loss of social contacts and apathy.

The third symptom pillar of schizophrenia is the cognitive disorders. It often leads to pronounced concentration and memory disorders. Psychosis is therefore more likely to be a symptom (which consists of other symptoms) that can have various causes, while schizophrenia is a severe mental illness that is very often accompanied by psychotic symptoms.A psychotic disorder has basically nothing in common with an obsessive-compulsive disorder.

These two disorders are two different entities of mental disorders. The obsessive-compulsive disorder is accompanied by compulsive acts and thoughts. The obsessive thoughts force themselves unintentionally upon the person affected and must be thought over again and again.

In contrast to the psychosis, however, the affected person knows about the actual absurdity of these thoughts, the reference to reality is preserved. Nevertheless, obsessive-compulsive disorder is an extremely tormenting illness that often requires treatment. The term neurosis in this sense no longer exists in psychiatric medicine today.

In former times one described hereby a general psychological behavior disturbance which could accompany with most diverse symptoms. The affected person cannot control these behavioural disorders sufficiently, but is aware of them. The relation to reality is therefore still present. With the psychosis, however, the affected person has lost the connection to reality, he can no longer distinguish between delusional content and reality. Psychosis and neurosis are therefore two different mental disorders.