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Psychosis

Dosages

Antipsychotic medicines vary widely in the amount of dosage needed to stabilize patients. One patient may need only 10 or 20 mg of an antipsychotic, while another will need hundreds of milligrams. The blood is monitored to determine the necessary dosage. A group of patients receiving the same medication can need widely differing amounts of the same medicine to achieve the desired effect.

While medication is the foremost element of current treatment for most situations of psychosis, counseling for the patient and family is also considered an important part of treatment, both to help them understand the role of the medicine and how to deal with the illness. Before antipsychotic medication came into common use, many people suffering from psychosis had to be hospitalized. Today, with a careful diagnosis and treatment therapy, many lead relatively normal and socially useful lives.

Resources

Books

Amchin, Jess. Psychiatric Diagnosis: A Biopsychosocial Approach Using DSM-III-R. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press, 1991.

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press, 1994.

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM IV-TR. 4th ed., text revision. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association, 2000.

Papolos, Demitri F., and Janice Papolos. Overcoming Depression. New York: Harper & Row, 1987.

Podvoll, Edward M. The Seduction of Madness. New York: Harper Collins, 1990.

Torrey, E. Fuller. Surviving Schizophrenia. New York: Harper & Row, 1988.

Periodicals

Golden, Frederic. "Mental Illness: Probing the Chemistry of the Brain." Time 157 (January 2001).

Hyman, S.E. "The Genetics of Mental Illness: Implications for Practice." Bulletin of the World Health Organization 78 (April 2000): 455-463.

Vita Richman

KEY TERMS

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Delusions: —Incorrect beliefs about reality that may involve one's self-importance or the false belief that one is being persecuted when no such persecution is taking place.
Hallucination: —A sensory experience of something that does not exist outside the mind. A person can experience a hallucination in any of the five senses.
Manic-depressive illness: —Bipolar disorder, a mental illness in which psychosis may present as a symptom and where the patient exhibits both an excited state, called mania, and a depressed state.
Neuroleptics: —Medications that treat psychosis, also called antipsychotics.
Schizophrenia: —A mental illness characterized by thought disorder, distancing from reality, and sometimes delusions and hallucinations.

Additional topics

Science EncyclopediaScience & Philosophy: Propagation to Quantum electrodynamics (QED)Psychosis - Forms Of Psychosis, Symptoms Of Psychosis, Medications For Treatment, Dosages