Paranoid Psychosis (info please?)

Ekancone

Hello i am wondering if this is a symptom or a diagnosis? I cant seem to find a definitive answer to this. Some say it is a symptom of Bi-polar/Schizophrenia and some say that it is a illness in its own right. Which is it?

Layman here btw.

Gibs

daithifleming wrote:

Hello i am wondering if this is a symptom or a diagnosis? I cant seem to find a definitive answer to this. Some say it is a symptom of Bi-polar/Schizophrenia and some say that it is a illness in its own right. Which is it?

Layman here btw.

From Wikipedia:

According to the DSM (diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders), psychosis can be a symptom of mental illness, but it is not a mental illness in its own right. For example, people with schizophrenia often experience psychosis, but so can people with bipolar disorder (manic depression), unipolar depression, delirium, or drug withdrawal.[8][2] People diagnosed with these conditions can also have long periods without psychosis. Conversely, psychosis can occur in people who do not have chronic mental illness (e.g. due to an adverse drug reaction or extreme stress).[9]

Psychosis should be distinguished from insanity, which is a legal term denoting that a person is not criminally responsible for his or her actions.[10]

Psychosis should be distinguished from psychopathy, a personality disorder associated with violence, lack of empathy and socially manipulative behavior.[11] Despite both being colloquially abbreviated "psycho", psychosis bears little similarity to the core features of psychopathy, particularly with regard to violence, which rarely occurs in psychosis,[12][13] and distorted perception of reality, which rarely occurs in psychopathy.[14]

Psychosis should also be distinguished from delirium: a psychotic individual may be able to perform actions that require a high level of intellectual effort in clear consciousness, whereas a delirious individual will have impaired memory and cognitive function.

In psychiatry, the term paranoia was used by Emil Kraepelin to describe a mental illness in which a delusional belief is the sole, or most prominent feature. In his original attempt at classifying different forms of mental illness, Kraeplin used the term pure paranoia to describe a condition where a delusion was present, but without any apparent deterioration in intellectual abilities and without any of the other features of dementia praecox, the condition later renamed schizophrenia. Notably, in his definition, the belief does not have to be persecutory to be classified as paranoid, so any number of delusional beliefs can be classified as paranoia. For example, a person who has the sole delusional belief that he is an important religious figure would be classified by Kraepelin as having 'pure paranoia'. More recently, the clinical use of the term has been used to describe delusions where the affected person believes they are being persecuted. Specifically, they have been defined as containing two central elements:

1. The individual thinks that harm is occurring, or is going to occur, to him or her.
2. The individual thinks that the persecutor has the intention to cause harm.

Paranoia is often associated with psychotic illnesses, particularly schizophrenia, although attenuated features may be present in other primarily non-psychotic diagnoses, such as paranoid personality disorder. Paranoia can also be a side effect of medication or recreational drugs, particularly marijuana and stimulants such as methamphetamine.

In the unrestricted use of the term, common paranoid delusions can include the belief that the person is being followed, poisoned or loved at a distance (often by a media figure or important person, a delusion known as erotomania or de Clerambault syndrome).

Other common paranoid delusions include the belief that the person has an imaginary disease or parasitic infection (delusional parasitosis); that the person is on a special quest or has been chosen by God; that the person has had thoughts inserted or removed from conscious thought; or that the person's actions are being controlled by an external force.

Therefore, in common usage, the term paranoid addresses a range of mental conditions, assumed by the use of the term to be of psychiatric origin, in which the subject is seen to generalise or projects fears and anxieties onto the external world, particularly in the form of organised behaviour focused on them. The syndrome is applied equally to powerful people like executives obsessed with takeover bids or political leaders convinced of plots against them, and to insignificant people who believe for instance that shadowy agencies are operating against them.


http://www.psychosocial.com/current_2002/CBT_Psychosis.html


http://www.iop.kcl.ac.uk/departments/?locator=400


http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1525111

Ekancone

Yeah i wiki'd it already i was just wondering was there any other opinion out there?