Psychosis causes

Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1];Associate Editor(s)-in-Chief: Vindhya BellamKonda, M.B.B.S [2]

Causes of mental illness are customarily distinguished as “organic” or “functional”. Organic causes are those for which a medical, pathophysiological basis can be found. Functional causes are “the rest”, the psychological causes properly speaking, e.g. anxiety, depression, etc.

Functional causes of psychosis include the following:

• Schizophrenia
• Bipolar disorder (manic depression)
• Severe clinical depression
• Severe psychosocial stress
• Sleep deprivation

A psychotic episode can be significantly affected by mood. For example, people experiencing a psychotic episode in the context of depression may experience persecutory or self-blaming delusions or hallucinations, while people experiencing a psychotic episode in the context of mania may form grandiose delusions.

Stress is known to contribute to and trigger psychotic states. A history of psychologically traumatic events, and the recent experience of a stressful event, can both contribute to the development of psychosis. Short-lived psychosis triggered by stress is known as brief reactive psychosis, and patients may spontaneously recover normal functioning within two weeks.^[1] In some rare cases, individuals may remain in a state of full-blown psychosis for many years, or perhaps have attenuated psychotic symptoms (such as low intensity hallucinations) present at most times.

Sleep deprivation has been linked to psychosis.