What is schizophrenic psychosis?

Schizophrenic psychosis is the acute form of schizophrenia. This is a disorder in which reality is perceived as disturbed. During a psychosis it can happen that the patient hears strange voices or sees ghosts that are not there.

Often there is also a feeling of inner restlessness and tension. The symptoms of a psychosis can be very variable and vary from person to person. There are different types of schizophrenic psychoses. The best known form is the paranoid schizophrenic psychosis, in which paranoia and the feeling of being observed are in the foreground. Mistakenly, schizophrenia is often associated with split personality disorder (also dissociative identity disorder), in which different personalities of a person can take control of the body.

What could be the signs of schizophrenic psychosis?

A psychosis can manifest itself in different ways and can be quite diverse. However, there are some distinctive signs that are common. Delusions: In a delusion, reality is perceived distorted and misinterpreted.

In this case, other people cannot ensure that the person concerned abandons his or her ideas, even with rational arguments. During a psychosis, people often have the feeling of being followed or eavesdropped on (persecution mania) or they wrongly relate even trivial details to themselves and attach special importance to them (relationship mania). For example, the feeling can arise that the speaker on the radio or television is talking about the person concerned even though the news is being broadcast.

However, body-related delusions are also possible in which the perception of one’s own body is disturbed. Another well-known delusion is megalomania, where one perceives oneself as a “misunderstood genius” or “prominent personality”. However, this has nothing to do with a split personality, in which one has different split personalities that can take over the thinking and acting.

Ego- disorders: Here, affected persons have difficulties to distinguish between the “I” and the environment. They have the feeling that others can read their thoughts (thought propagation), thoughts are stolen from their head (thought withdrawal) or inserted (thought inspiration). Also, the feeling of being controlled by others, self-alienation or altered perception of the environment can lead to hallucinations and perceptual disorders: Hallucinations can occur with all five sensory perceptions (hearing, seeing, tasting, smelling, feeling).

Especially hearing voices or seeing ghosts and faces is not uncommon. The brain is not able to process and interpret the sensory impressions. Especially when hearing voices, it is important to consider whether the voices are talking to each other or to the affected person.

In many cases, the voices are commanding or insulting and can also encourage suicide. In this case it is important to seek professional help to avoid giving in to the voices. It is difficult if the voices forbid the affected person to talk about the fact that the voices are inciting him or her to commit suicide.

formal thinking disorders: Usually here a slowing down in thinking, thought jumps or a tearing off of thoughts is noticeable. The affected persons also often talk past the actual topic (talking past), invent new words (neologisms) or show a lack of experience in thinking, which results in illogical sentences with confused sentence fragments.

Delusions: In a delusion, reality is perceived distorted and misinterpreted.
Even with rational arguments, other people cannot ensure that the person concerned abandons their ideas. During a psychosis, people often have the feeling of being followed or eavesdropped on (persecution mania) or they wrongly relate even trivial details to themselves and attach special importance to them (relationship mania). For example, the feeling can arise that the speaker on the radio or television is talking about the person concerned even though the news is being broadcast.

However, body-related delusions are also possible in which the perception of one’s own body is disturbed. Another well-known delusion is megalomania, where one perceives oneself as a “misunderstood genius” or “prominent personality”.However, this has nothing to do with a split personality, where you have different split personalities who can take over the thinking and acting.
I- interference: Here, affected persons have difficulties to distinguish between the “I” and the environment. They have the feeling that others can read their thoughts (thought propagation), thoughts are stolen from their head (thought withdrawal) or inserted (thought inspiration).
Also the feeling of external control, self-alienation or changed perception of the environment can arise
Hallucinations and perceptual disorders: Hallucinations can occur with all five sensory perceptions (hearing, seeing, tasting, smelling, feeling). Especially hearing voices or seeing ghosts and faces is not uncommon. The brain is not able to process and interpret the sensory impressions.
Especially when hearing voices, it is important to consider whether the voices are talking to each other or to the affected person. In many cases, the voices are commanding or insulting and can also encourage suicide. In this case it is important to seek professional help to avoid giving in to the voices.

It is difficult if the voices forbid the person concerned to talk about the fact that the voices encourage him to commit suicide.
Formal thinking disorders: Usually here a slowing down in thinking, thought jumps or a tearing off of thoughts is noticeable. Those affected also often talk past the actual topic (talking past), invent new words (neologisms) or show a lack of experience in thinking, which results in illogical sentences with confused sentence fragments.

A distinction is made between positive symptoms and negative symptoms, although the terms can sound very misleading. Positive symptoms are, for example, delusions or hallucinations that “extend” thought processes and sensations beyond the normal, i.e. they are more likely to be additional.

Negative symptoms result in a reduction of normal regular actions and thought processes. Examples of this can be social withdrawal, lack of strength, lack of motivation or joylessness. But cognitive problems such as concentration and retentiveness can also be impaired.

The negative symptoms often occur before the point in time recognized as the actual onset of the disease. They also lead to a significant disability of the patient and should not be underestimated! People with psychoses often suffer in everyday life from a variety of impairments of perception, thinking, speaking and acting, so-called basic disorders.

Basic disorders lead, for example, to problems in concentration, in communicating with other people, in making decisions. Even very simple everyday activities, e.g. personal hygiene, dressing, can therefore become a problem for those affected. Patients find it difficult to integrate situations and, for example, emotions shown by other people into the overall context. All this leads to patients losing an average of 10 IQ points (compared to the norm) due to their illness.