The symptoms of depression have been highly publicized, but what the medical field considers psychotic behavior is less understood. In short, a person with psychosis is simply out of touch with reality. People with schizophrenia are probably most known for psychotic behavior, displaying common symptoms of psychosis such as illogical thoughts particularly about who they are. For instance, two common forms of psychosis are thinking that you are someone you are not – often someone famous such as the president – or feeling paranoid that the people around you are reading your mind or trying to hurt you in some way.
The difference between, say, people with schizophrenia and people with psychotic depression is that the depressed group is usually aware that their thoughts are unreasonable. People suffering from psychotic depression usually have a firmer grip on reality than other people experiencing psychosis. While this presence of mind can aid recovery, it often also creates feelings of shame and embarrassment that prevents patients from seeking help.
Symptoms of Psychotic Depression
- Anxiety
- Insomnia
- Agitation
- Psychosis
- Constipation
- Hypochondria
- Suicidal ideation
- Outbursts of anger
- Intellectual impairment
Usually listed as a type of depression, psychotic depression presents itself as a combination of psychotic and severe depressive symptoms. For instance, along with the symptoms of psychotic depression mentioned above, a patient would also experience the hopelessness and overwhelming sadness associated with severe depression. The combination of these two mental health conditions most often produces the above symptoms.
In most situations, this entails a patient who is experiencing irrational thoughts (psychosis), feelings of hopelessness and worthlessness (severe depression), while also maintaining some sort of grasp on reality. Because of the stigma still attached to a diagnosis of psychosis and because the patient is usually still in touch with reality, psychotic depression is known to be a hard illness to diagnosis.
Psychotic depression can also be the first symptoms of bipolar disorder where a patient will have both psychotic highs and psychotic depressions. In this situation, a person experiencing psychotic depression will at some point swing to the other extreme and experience mania.
Treatment of Psychotic Depression
Just as the name suggests, treatment for psychotic depression is most often a combination of antidepressants and anti-psychotic medication. Depending on the state of the patient and the severity of the condition, treatment often involves a hospital stay to insure safe stabilization. Today’s medications are usually highly effective in the treatment of psychotic depression though continual psychiatric attention is almost always required for long term stabilization and recovery.
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