Health Dictionary
Reliable, easy-to-read patient information on common medical conditions — written in plain language, free of jargon, and grounded in current evidence. Browse the most frequent diagnoses, understand what they mean for everyday life, and learn which steps and questions help you have a focused conversation with your doctor.
Brief reactive psychosis
Introduction
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Overview
Overview
Brief reactive psychosis is the psychiatric term for psychosis which can be triggered by an extremely stressful event in the life of a patient. This ‘stressful life event’ can take many forms, including (but not limited to) the death of a loved one, professional loss such as unexpected redundancy or otherwise becoming unemployed, or serious adverse changes in the patient’s personal life, such as the breakdown of their family through divorce, etc.
It must be stressed that this is by no means an exhaustive list of stressful life events, because the events which trigger brief reactive psychosis tend, due to the individualistic nature of human psychology, to be extremely personalized.
The condition usually spontaneously resolves itself within two weeks, and the main goal of treatment is to prevent the patient from harming either themself or others.
Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]