Talk:Psychosis

This is the discussion/talk page for: Psychosis.

Topics from 2003

older entries

These really don't have anything to do with psychosis

• The Problem of Defining Sanity for a discussion of the problems of defining reality in this context. This article, however, is fatally flawed in that sanity is a legal term and not a medical one
• see the works of the science fiction author Philip K. Dick for a view from inside (Dick suffered from psychotic syptoms throughout his later life)

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Readded line distinguishing bipolar and schizophrenia. It's rare for someone with schizophrenia to appear completely normal between psychotic episodes unless they are medicated. It's rather common for this to happen with people with bipolar disorder.

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Was Joan of Arc psychotic, according to the article's definition? Shall we mention this in the article?

I suspect this question was written a couple of years ago, but to answer for the current editors - there was a school of scholarship in the twentieth century that proposed various psychological explanations for Joan of Arc's religious visions. This view was by no means universal among historians. Significantly, the people who met her during her lifetime often marveled at her mental acuity. It wouldn't be possible to maintain NPOV in this article with a short mention and an adequate treatment would probably be too digressive for an page devoted to psychosis. Durova 21:44, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

We could include a number of other prophets in this question Fred Bauder 13:25, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

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Could someone include a citation for this and include the fact that this view is not generally accepted by psychiatrists?

Traditionally, psychosis was seen as arising exclusively from severe mental disturbance, however more recent evidence has shown that psychotic phenomena may be normally distributed throughout the population. It is usually only when someone becomes significantly distressed, or distresses others that psychotic experiences are considered as medical problems and become labelled as psychosis.

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Yep, for example: Johns LC, van Os J. (2001) The continuity of psychotic experiences in the general population. Clinical Psychology Review, 21(8), 1125-41
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov:80/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=11702510&dopt=Abstract Verdoux H, van Os J. (2002) Psychotic symptoms in non-clinical populations and the continuum of psychosis. Schizophrenia Research, 54(1-2), 59-65.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov:80/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=11853979&dopt=Abstract

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Changed info on link between cannabis use and psychosis in light of recent review and additional studies publishes in January 2003 edition of Psychological Medicine. Of particular interest is the editorial which reviews the evidence for such a link: Degenhardt, L. (2003) Editorial: The link between cannabis use and psychosis: furthering the debate. Psychological Medicine, 33, 3-6. See also July 28. 2007 Lancet. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.139.7.248 (talk) 06:34, August 24, 2007 (UTC) Also reworded info on amphetamines / hallucinogens and psychosis at top of article as it was a little ambiguous and could be interpreted as saying that LSD / mescaline caused psychosis by nature of their effect. The LSD / etc experience is not considered psychotic in itself, but psychosis may arise as an unwanted long term side effect in certain individuals -- Vaughan

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Could someone explain why those two paragraphs were removed? They contained useful information and I don't see anything objectable (or even controversial) in them.

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No idea. Thanks for putting them back in.

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"Psychosis is a psychiatric classification for a mental state in which the perception of reality is distorted." This is an all-time champion in the field of question-begging! Who is saying what reality is? --141.219.44.80 Trust me, if you'd ever had a psychotic episode and recovered, you wouldn't be asking that question. "What is reality" is a good and important question, but I can tell you that part of the answer is "it's not psychosis" Aaargh I am one who has been perceived as psychotic (by a psychiatrist) and to me the statement is very question-begging! (Please dont try telling me that my own perception of the statement is distorted). Laurel Bush 12:00, 31 Mar 2005 (UTC).

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Just noticed that the psychosis article got added to the Brilliant Prose page. Well done to all who have contributed. Top teamwork.

Topics from 2004

Begin NPOV dispute discussion

I've removed the following, I don't think it's worth trotting out Szasz's views in quite such detail in every entry on mental illness, as this is done in more detail in Thomas Szasz, schizophrenia and anti-psychiatry.

However, not everyone agrees. Dr. Thomas Szasz (author, The Manufacture of Madness) is perhaps the leading critic of the psychiatric profession. He says, "The term 'mental illness' refers to the undesirable thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of persons. Classifying thoughts, feelings, and behaviors as diseases is a logical and semantic error, like classifying the whale as a fish. ... The classification of misbehavior as illness provides an ideological justification for state-sponsored social control as medical treatment." This view can be seen as congruent with the work of Chomsky, whose works Necessary Illusions and Manufacturing Consent address thought control in democratic societies, but via propaganda instead of psychiatric treatment.

However, I think it's important to mention the general point, so I've replaced it with the following summary and included a little about R. D. Laing's criticisms as these are specific to psychosis.

Psychosis has been of particular interest to critics of mainstream psychiatric practice who argue that it may simply be another way of constructing reality and is not necessarily a sign of illness. For example, R. D. Laing has argued that psychosis is a symbolic way of expressing concerns in situations where such views may be unwelcome or uncomfortable to the recipients. Thomas Szasz has focused on the social implications of labelling people as psychotic, a label which he argues unjustly medicalises different views of reality so such unorthdox people can be controlled by society.

- Vaughan 09:54, 8 Jan 2004 (UTC) Some people may make that claim but they would be in essence saying that the entire field of psychology is wrong. There are clear medical features of these mental illnesses. Although psychology, like any science, is not and cannot be 100% correct (since perfection is denied to humans and their creations) none the less it is difficult for a doctor to waive her hand over someone and pronounce them as psychotic without proof and rational backing her diagonsis up. I am going to put 'inability to cope in ' back in. If we were smart we would get a copy of the DSM-4 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders DSM-IV-TR) and quote them on their definition of psychosis is. Anyone diagnosed with mental illness must be done in accordance with this book. --ShaunMacPherson 15:47, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC)

you wrote "There are clear medical features of these mental illnesses". Really? What are the medical features and can you cite a source of this research and documentation?--Mark v1.0 08:48, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

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I just noticed my secton on Szasz was removed. While I agree that a lengthy section is probably not warranted on every page on Psychiatry, I do not consider one paragraph to be excessive. Also, while I appreciate your inclusion of a Szasz link further down, your commentary is rather weak. To say he "has focused on the social implications" is secondary to the fact that he considers most aspects of Psychiatry fraudulent, IMHO. I think for NPOV reasons, something in the introduction should indicate that this branch of science is dubious. Bhuston 10:00, 9 Jan 2004 (UTC)

Hi Bhuston

My problem is not with the content, but it just seems a little too much detail in the psychosis article as Szasz's arguments don't apply to psychosis specifically, but are general to all of what others call mental illness. Since his arguments are covered more fully on other pages, I'm not sure of the value of including them in such detail here. The same with mentioning the opinion that psychiatry may be dubious. Surely the place for that is on the psychiatry or anti-psychiatry pages, rather than on every page about psychopathology ? However, I certainly think that the point is important, perhaps it might be worth including a bit mentioning that these arguments are better covered on his personal page (for example) ? - Vaughan 10:20, 9 Jan 2004 (UTC)

Hi Vaughan, In answer to the above, I disagree, as even the notion of "psychopathology" is considered by some (including me), BAD SCIENCE.

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I'm adding the NPOV dispute tag until the following can be resolved:

1. General tone that psychiatry in general, and specifically this topic, are foregone conclusions based on sound science, which they are not. Simple thought experiments can show that axioms of psychiatry are opinion and not demonstratable scientific fact
2. weak mention of Szasz
3. "Psychosis has been of particular interest to critics of mainstream psychiatric practice who argue that it may simply be another way of constructing reality and is not necessarily a sign of illness." The premise here again is that "psychosis" is a scientifically valid concept, even amongst the anti-psychiatric people, which it is not.
4. The following argument is presented:
   1. psychosis is a symptom of extreme mental illness
   2. psychosis is a distorted view of reality
   3. psychosis can be induced with LSD, mescaline, and marijuana
   4. conclusion: LSD, mescaline and marijuana induce (symptoms of) mental illness
   This is one possible interpretation, but not the only valid one, such as the interpreatation that hallucinogenic substances produce transcendental, entheogenic, shamanistic visions, or other mystical or religous states, which are quite valid and not to be thought of as "disease"
5. references to United States government sources supporting such "halucinogenic plants produce mental disease", which is really WOD propaganda

Really, I am of the anti-psychiatric camp. I've seen too many people, good friends of mine, forced into barbaric treatment, electrochocked, placed into restraints, removed from their homes, forced to take psychotropic drugs, etc. and worse, all against their will. These people were not threats. The laws are barbaric, and this is based on the bad scienctific premise that there is such a thing as "normal mental states", and that such things can be defined. I will not advocate removal of the NPOV dispute until these topics are addressed in a significant fashion. Bhuston 19:11, 14 Jan 2004 (UTC) --

There seems to be a difference between the field of psychology as a science, and the practice of psychology by scientists (psychologists, etc.).

Psychosis seems to be a well defined collection of symptoms (behavioural, chemical, and neurological). However, problems arise when trying to measure these symptoms in people and then assigning a diagnosis to them. Putting in a section on the practice of psychology and how these professionals incorrectly diagnosis and (abuse patients in the process of this incorrect diagnosis) with well backed up information / stats is useful.--ShaunMacPherson 16:03, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC)

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Hi Buston

I think your points are good ones, but they apply to the classification of ALL MENTAL ILLNESS by psychiatrists, not just psychosis. I think this objection is quite fundamental when we are discussing where your points should go.

The premise here again is that "psychosis" is a scientifically valid concept, even amongst the anti-psychiatric people, which it is not.

I don't think anyone has ever argued that the classification of psychosis is based on science and the article certainly doesn't, as the classification of anything is a pre-scientific concept. In other words, to classify anything you have to set your criteria before-hand and then use science to see if things fit into your classification. So this is not a problem with psychosis per se, but with all types of classification, and especially with the classification of any type of human behaviour. For example, the classification of what consititutes remembering and therefore what is classified as amnesia is subject to exactly the same objection.

Psychosis is a concept (not a 'scientific fact' - i.e. the result of a tested hypothesis), and even anti-psychiatry advocates understand what is meant by it, even if they don't agree with the implications of its use.

Since it is the psychiatric implications you disagree with, rather than (I presume) the classifying human behaviour, I would argue that this is not the place for your original comments.

However, I think you've raised an important point mentioning hallucinogenic drugs, as this case shows some of the shortcomings of the article in describing the psychiatric concept. Experiences caused by such drugs are not considered to be a sign of psychosis because they are short term and abate when the body metabolises the drug out of the bloodstream. I think it should be mentioned in the article that psychosis is considered to be a a reaction beyond the immediate psychotropic influence of any drug and is in some way impairing or distressing.

references to United States government sources supporting such "halucinogenic plants produce mental disease", which is really WOD propaganda

? - I see no references to any government sources in the article.

- Vaughan 21:31, 14 Jan 2004 (UTC)

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I'd like to removed the The neutrality of this article is disputed notice. Since it was added I think the points of contention have been addressed, however perhaps any objections can be voiced here. If none are made, I'll remove the notice during the next few weeks. - Vaughan 20:43, 6 Feb 2004 (UTC)

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I've reverted the following additions to the introductory paragraph:

"there is extensive disorder of the personality"

"and an inability to effectively cope in society"

This is the traditional psychaitric view and is considered increasingly outdated. For example, see the Johns and van OS (2001) paper (reference 10), Bentall's work and the work by Fromme and Escher with the 'Hearing Voices Network'. i.e. Many people may fulfill the diagnostic criteria for a psychotic illness despite functioning perfectly well and maintaining an integrated personality. - Vaughan 13:34, 27 Feb 2004 (UTC) There is a reason why many psychotic people are in mental institutions: they cannot cope in society. To pretend that they could is disingenuous. If you prefer (after citing a scientific webpage that shows what % of psychotic paitents are able to cope so we can use the correct adjective) I'd have no objections to it being changed to '*sometimes accompanied* with an inability to cope in society' if a majority of people diagnosed with a psychotic illness can indeed function in society. --ShaunMacPherson 16:12, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Hi there Shaun,

The DSM entry for psychosis is here. Specific diagnostic criteria is not outlined in the DSM because it is not a diagnosis in itself. It is a feature of, or a reaction to other conditions such as schizophrenia, or for example stress (in the case of brief reactive psychosis) and so on.

As for percentages, if we define psychosis as including hallucinations or delusions (as per the DSM, although it is not the final world in diagnosis, there are many other diagnostic systems used throughout the world), a study by Ohayon (2000) showed that 39% of people in the general population reported hallucinations. A study measuring delusional ideation in the general population by Peters et al (1999) reported that "The ranges of scores between the normal and deluded groups (i.e. inpatients) overlapped considerably".

The disintegration of personality and inability to cope in society is part of the diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia (see criteria B of the DSM-IV-TR criteria here) but psychosis can exist without these features and they do not define it in any way.

Very good then "an inability to cope in society" should be in the introduction since schizophrenia is a significant fraction of people with psychosis. As i've already stated if you want to add "sometimes/often/in the case of many disorders/etc. accompanied by...an inability to cope in society" then that is fine with me.

For example, delusional disorder is a psychotic disorder (see its DSM entry under 'Schizophrenia and Other Psychotic Disorders' here) but specifically states that general functioning should not be impaired.

Is delusional disorder a significant fraction of the psychosis patients like schizophrenia (~25%) is? I hope you are not using the exception to prove the rule.

In fact, there are even moves to remove the signs and symptoms of psychosis from the diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia, in favour of specific neurocognitive deficits. This is discussed at length in a recent article by Tsuang et al's and in Green's recent book Schizophrenia Revealed (ISBN 0393703347).

Yes, so?

Just because there are some people with psychosis who can't cope in society, doesn't mean that it is necessarily a defining feature of it. -

Vaughan 17:10, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC) Just because some people with psychosis can cope in society doesn't mean it isn't necessarily a defining feature of it. --ShaunMacPherson 11:21, 11 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Additionally, I found a study which found that suggests that the minority of people who fulfill the criteria for psychosis are clinically impaired in any way. Abstract here.

I propose removing the "disorder of the personality" and "inability to cope in society" description from the introductory paragraph as is seems neither supported by the DSM nor recent research. However, I think these are interesting points and would like to suggest a section titled "Is psychosis an illness ?" (or similar) where these points can be discussed, alongside the bits elsewhere in the article about Laing and Szasz's view of psychosis and Jfdwolff's suggestion incorporating non-psychiatric aetiologies into the article.

I'll make a start shortly, so please voice any objections here or edit once it's in place. - Vaughan 16:22, 8 Mar 2004 (UTC)

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Secondary psychosis I've introduced a small list of diseases that can induce psychosis, e.g. Lupus Erythematosus and Sarcoidosis. I did not have the time to find a more complete list, but I felt this belonged here. Jfdwolff 08:57, 1 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Unfortunately, the list would be very long indeed as psychosis has been reported to occur in association with almost every form of disease known, including ones traditionally thought to be relatively benign and not usually associated with neurotoxicity, such as flu, mumps and rickets. In fact, almost any combination of 'psychosis' and another randomly selected disease will bring up a case on PubMed.

I'm also a little uncomfortable about the use of the term 'Somatic diseases' as it suggests that mental illnesses aren't located in the body which seems to smack of dualism for me.

So, I'm not entirely sure such a list would be useful. However, perhaps some others could give their views here ? - Vaughan 09:26, 1 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Thanks Vaughan, I'll be more specific. Of course any disease can also luxate psychosis (there's a seperate DSM code for this phenomenon). There are, however, some diseases which are very prone to cause psychosis. Up to 25% of all Lupus patients have a psychosis at some point through their disease, which is very high indeed. Most 'flu' patients do not get psychosis :-). The use of the word "somatic" is entirely because this is the way psychiatrists talk. Allright, the brain is also an organ, but psychiatry has benefitted immensely from the distinction of "psychiatric" and "somatic". The third axis in DSM diagnosis is reserved for so-called "somatic" diagnoses. Hope this clarifies my contributions. Jfdwolff 20:05, 1 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Hi again Jfdwolff,

Good point. Perhaps it would be better to have a 'top 10' or similar of conditions most associated with psychosis, rather than an open list as I fear it may simply be continuously added to over time and become increasingly useless as the list becomes excessively large and, like you say, full of rare cases.

Unfortunately, after a quick literature search has brought up nothing of obvious relevant that might provide this information, however I will continue looking both on and offline and see what I find. If you know of any such sources, please post them !

As to your second point, although psychiatry may have benefitted from the distinction between 'somatic' and 'psychiatric' in the past, I would argue it is becoming increasingly redundant. More importantly I don't think a wikipedia should simply uncritically reproduce psychiatric definitions, especially where they are confusing. Perhaps a note on 'secondary psychoses' and a mention of Tsuang et al's influential paper on etiology of psychosis might be informative on this issue ? - Vaughan 21:08, 1 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Hi Vaughan. Unfortunately I lack the time to compile an authoritive list of disorders associated with psychosis. Cerebral Lupus and Sarcoid definitely belong here, though. In order to meet with your objections, the header could be changed to read: "Non-psychiatric disease associated with psychosis" (to eliminate the "somatic" bit). Tsuang et al seem to focus mainly on the classification of schizophrenia, which - although the most important - is only one of the causes of psychosis. I would agree that this is an important reference, but more properly in the Schizophrenia entry. Jfdwolff 16:41, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Hi Jfdwolff,

Excellent suggestion. I am in the process of compiling a list and will certainly add your information and perhaps you can check it over once completed? The Tsuang article is focused on the classification of schizophrenia but makes wider points about the separation of psychosis and schizophrenia. - Vaughan 17:11, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Vaughan, I'm embarrassed to say that I've not properly read the Tsuang article, and I beg to understand what light it might shed on secondary psychosis. I've personally never heard of secondary schizophrenia, nor does it sound plausible. I'm very interested about your list! Jfdwolff 15:26, 5 Mar 2004 (UTC) Hi, It gives a suggestion for hearing voices - internal voices that are mislabeled. I've had a possible idea about that. You know when you leave on the microphone on voice recognition software, and it tries to make words out of background noise. The software makes sure it generates gramatically correct sentences. What if that is happening in real life? An over sensitive recognition system, combined with hearing what you think you should hear. I know this is offtopic, sorry about that. Does anyone know if this has been suggested, and is it a theory? Could this idea be added in someway? Thank you for your time. JohnFlux 19:22, 24 Apr 2004 (GMT)

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What's the deal with the PC treatment? Is it taboo to call psychosis a disease/disorder/ailment?

It's not PC treatment. People have different definitions for disease and disorder. Some consider mental illness a disease, while others claim a persons non physical mind can not be diseased. Diseases have lab tests to detect them ,mental illness has no lab tests. Peoples injured souls have been directly linked with peoples physical brains in biological psychiatry.--Mark v1.0 08:55, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Psychotic experience

An anon user deleted the following:

Although usually distressing and regarded as an illness process, some people who experience psychosis find beneficial aspects and value the experience or revelations that stem from it.

I have not personally heard of anyone saying this but someone has added this to the article and I believe that should be respected and thus reinstated. How does everyone else feel about this? --CloudSurfer 03:18, 20 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Hi CloudSurfer,

I've reinstated it, as it is plainly clear from the work of people like R. D. Laing and others (whatever you think of his theories) that some people do find beneficial aspects to psychosis. I've personally met many patients who found insights they gained from the experiences were positive, even if the majority of their psychotic experience was distressing or impairing. - 131.251.37.132 07:13, 20 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Topics from 2005

Add ICU psychosis

Requesting that someone add "ICU psychosis" to the article.

Hi SueNami,

I think 'ICU psychosis' is a bit of a misnomer (albeit a commonly used one) as it usually refers to a state of delirium. Nevertheless, it might be useful to add a section on the more esoteric uses of the term 'psychosis' in the medical literature (such as so-called 'airport psychosis') and a note on the fact that the term may be used more loosely in these situations.

- Vaughan 21:17, 9 November 2005 (UTC)

The article is lovely!

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Is there a cure, I can't be bothered to read the above paragraphs to find out According to R.D. Laing, psychosis itself could be the cure.

Topics from 2006

Removed 'Hearing voices' section

I removed the following section that was recently added, as it seems to be someone's personal experience of psychosis. However, it reminded me that the article doesn't particularly address the magical thinking / apophenia aspect (see connections everywhere) very well, which probably needs a bit more elaboration. - Vaughan 07:49, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

Hearing Voices - Explained

Individuals that "Hear Voices", contrary to what's listed above, very rarely hear ACTUAL voices inside their head. More often than not, the term 'hearing voices' is used to explain a phenomena un-explainable by current medical knowledge; When going through a period of Mania, or Depression, it's common when experiencing psychosis to have a feeling of 'a greater power' controlling the things in daily reality. Things such as lights flickering, television reception, etc. When a person experiencing psychosis has racing thoughts (thoughts moving much faster than normal), often co-incedances are sought after as everything is believed to have meaning to a greater purpose. When certain things happen, such as say a poster comes loose from a wall and falls to the floor, it's believed by the psychotic person that 'the higher power', whatever it may be, caused the poster to fall, which then causes the attention of the psychotic person to start paying close attention to all their senses, looking for signs that the higher power is trying to tell them something. If for example they are wondering if they should go and get a drink of water because they are thirsty but are indecisive as they are currently engaged in an activity, the poster falling off the wall depending on where it is hung would be the determining factor on them getting a drink. If the poster was hung close to a sink or next to the fridge, it would be a 'sign' that they should get a drink. If it was opposite them, it would be perceived to continue their activity and ignore their bodies request for fluid.

Combine all external stimuli, from fans going on and off in an office space, to the volume level of a television program in between commercials, people experiencing psychotic symptoms often portray these stimuli as something/someone trying to communicate with them - hence being spoken to, aka, hearing voices.

I definitely agree with the removal of this text. It is clearly one person's guess as to what is happening. I know from my experiences with manic psychosis that I definitely heard voices speaking in complete clear sentences and seeming to come from specific locations around me, even though I could not locate the speaker. They were not nonspecific noises or stimuli that I interpreted as having meaning or being signs! I admit I do NOT know what was happening, but I remember the experiences very clearly. -- RTC 01:26, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Reference format

Hello all. I'm a newcomer to this article and thought it would be good to give references in the way I've been doing in the etymology section; can get back to the main text after clicking on the reference link. I haven't had time to sift through the references yet. The page Wikipedia:Citation templates may be useful. Thanks. I've made a start at this. Will come back to finish it off (unless someone else wants to). MP (talk) 12:56, 19 August 2006 (UTC)

Recent reference additions

Just a note for people adding new references to the article. Most are fantastic, but please read them through to get an idea of their signficance, as some are a bit outside of the mainstream literature for the point being referenced. For example, the article "Chronic phencyclidine administration induces schizophrenia-like changes in N-acetylaspartate and N-acetylaspartylglutamate in rat brain" is not great evidence that PCP is linked to psychosis. PMID 6725621 is a much better reference to support this claim (actually describes cases of people with phencyclidine-induced psychosis). Other than that, it's looking good and I'll sift through the article myself shortly. - Vaughan 06:47, 29 September 2006 (UTC)

Neurotoxicity?

In the section "Brain function", following is written:
"Findings such as these have led to debate about whether psychosis is itself neurotoxic and whether potentially damaging changes to the brain are related to the length of psychotic episode."
Use of term "neurotoxic" as such is inappropriate here; neurotoxicity, or toxicity in general applies only to a substance i.e. a poison/toxin/venom. Toxicity is a characteristic of a substance, it can not be used to describe a condition. That means, that patological processes can't be described as "-toxic" unless they are caused by a poison/toxin. Thus, I suggest to change this term with "neurodegenerative", which, in my opinion, describes the situation related to psychosis better/more accurate than "neurotoxicity".--Spiperon 21:00, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

Hi there,

The progression of conditions can be described as neurotoxic when a toxin is theorised (even if it has not been identified) and there is an ongoing debate in the psychosis literature about whether psychosis is neurotoxic or not. e.g. see this review article. - Vaughan 06:41, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Even in the quoted article abstract, it is stated that "...Synaptic plasticity, not neurotoxicity, appears to be the mediating process.". Neurotoxicity as such necessarily implies an action of a poison, not hypothesis about it. Neurodegeneration, in turn, may be an effect of neurotoxicity as well as other causes, and is therefore more appropriate, in my opinion.--Spiperon 07:17, 28 October 2006 (UTC)

Hi there,

As I mentioned before it is possible to talk about a condition being neurotoxic, if one suspects an unknown neurotoxin at work. The reason the article says "Synaptic plasticity, not neurotoxicity, appears to be the mediating process" is not because you can't talk about neurotixicity in this instance (if that were the case, how could you write a review article in a scientific journal using this exact terminology?) but because it argues that there is no evidence for neurotoxicity.

Neurodegenerative is not appropriate because the debate about whether idiopathic psychosis is neurodegenerative has been largely rejected (e.g. when Bleuler changed the named from dementia praecox to schizophrenia exactly because there was no evidence of neurodegeneration).

The sentence in the article "Findings such as these have led to debate about whether psychosis is itself neurotoxic and whether potentially damaging changes to the brain are related to the length of psychotic episode" is accurate because it accurately describes the debate in the medical literature. If you don't agree with how the term is being used, this doesn't change the fact that it is being used in that way.

- Vaughan 10:02, 29 October 2006 (UTC)

Post-partum psychosis

(aka puerperal psychosis) Hi. Years ago I worked on a PPP research project at the Institute of Psychiatry in London. Whilst I note that two of the cited articles deal with this condition, there's nothing about it in the main text. Would someone who feels qualified to do so like to add something on PPP? I trained as a biochemist rather than a psychologist or psychiatrist, so I don't feel able to undertake this task. Thanks and regards, Notreallydavid 18:19, 25 December 2006 (UTC)

Topics from 2007

Dreams and Psychosis

I am reading a book on the relationship between states of dreaming consciousness and psychosis by J. Allan Hobson called The Dream Drugstore. I realize it's not a journal, however I also feel like he makes some interesting parallels that are backed up by observation. Would it be alright to add a section or is it too fringe or covered somewhere else? I'd hate to mess up an FA. Thanks, LilDice 19:15, 25 January 2007

Hamlet and 'intentional psychosis'

Someone added the following to the intro, but as I've no idea what it means ('intentional psychosis'?), I've moved it here for discussion:

There are superficial forms of psychosis, for example the kind of "intentional psychosis" that Hamlet suffered in the Shakespeare play.

- Vaughan 08:11, 15 May 2007 (UTC) I did not see withdrawal from neuroleptics (discontinuation syndrome)in the list of things that cause psychosis. R. Tranter, D. Healy, Neuroleptic discontinuation syndromes, J. Psychopharmacology, 1998, 12(3), 306-311 — 24.177.111.117 (talk) 11:53, 5 September 2007 (UTC)

Psychoanalysis and Psychosis

I am replacing this entry in the historical section which Vaughan deleted. This is a valid historical entry outlining psychoanalysis as an alternative view on psychosis. Deleting it is no more than censoring the historical record Psychoanalysis has a detailed account of psychosis which differs markedly from Psychiatry. Freud and Lacan outlined their perspective on the structure of psychosis in a number of works Lacan and Freud on the structure of psychosis : —Opendish (talk • contribs) 23:50, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

This topic is also available in Arabic

This topic (Psychosis) is available in Arabic at this URL: http://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%B0%D9%87%D8%A7%D9%86 but I couldn't find the place to link them together. Would some one experienced help with linking, please? Ai.unit 03:02, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

Done! Added ar:ذهان. As-Salāmu `Alaykum, CopperKettle 06:51, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

Larium (mefloquine)

This drug for malaria can cause psychosis and there are a lot of news articles concerning the miltary and travelers taking this drug and becoming mentally ill including killing people. Bronayur 03:01, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

BNF 53 lists psychosis as a side effect, but is does not say how frequent it occurs. Snowman (talk) 10:38, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

Mefloquine can be added under substances, psychosis is an uncommon but serious side effect of this medicine. a citation would be nice to put along with it, it anyone has one, many be a link to one of the news articles from aboveExpo512 (talk) 10:44, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

Much room for improvement

I think that the article is generally good and there are many references. I think that it can be improved a lot. there are several thinks that need to be made clearer: 1. There is no universally accepted definition of what is psychosis, even by current mental health professionals. A good reference is the first page of the 'psychotic disorders' chapter of the DSM-IV-TR. I think more of emphasis needs to be placed on the fact that psychosis it a broad concept. 2. The concept of "psychosis" is a very general sign or symptom, which may or may not be the sign of mental illness. 3. I'm not sure listing treatment of a symptom is really appropriate. It may be like listing the treatment for chest pain. Reasonable people would want to know if chest pain is related to the heart, the stomach, a muscle tear or another cause, before treatment. Really the treatment is for the underlying cause, and that should probably go in the corresponding articles.--Expo512 (talk) 08:46, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

Problem I see that many 'psychotic" episodes are the result of 'causes' that create mental illness symptoms. Much like a flu virus can cause light headness, a minor form of mental illness. Why this 'bridge is not made' is a question of education ?

--Caesar J. B. Squitti  : Son of Maryann Rosso and Arthur Natale Squitti 16:33, 14 August 2008 (UTC)

psychosis and violence

There is a reference about psychotic people not being more violent than others. Both citations refer to "first episodes". I think that psychosis and particularlly acute psychosis is a significant risk factor for violence (along with intoxication and past history of violence). However I know this is controversial and I do not want to put up anything wtihout citations. Any help here?--Expo512 (talk) 09:34, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

There is a valid observation, that is logical. A psychosis (no fault to the patient) that originates by disease or drugs, can cause a paranoia of sorts. So the patient reacts to his or her alse sense of 'threat'.

It is sad that media does not explain this, why ? there must be a reason. Anyway, as noted this is a high importance subject and by what I read it is very well done. --Caesar J. B. Squitti  : Son of Maryann Rosso and Arthur Natale Squitti 16:30, 14 August 2008 (UTC)

Topics from 2008

Document deleted

Lacan and Freud on the structure of psychosis : I deleted this document as it's not very clearly written and shouldn't have been in the main text anyway. A section on Lacan and Freud's theories would be very welcome though. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Camuser (talk • contribs) 01:40, 20 January 2008 (UTC)

Retrofit topic-year headers

21-Aug-2008: I have grouped older topics above using headers "Topics from 2003" (etc.) to emphasize age of topics. Older topics might still apply, but using the tactic of yearly headers to note the age helps avoid rehashing old news, without archiving any ongoing issues. Also, new topics are more likely to be added to the bottom, not top. Afterward, I moved several topics into date order. -Wikid77 (talk) 03:43, 21 August 2008 (UTC)

Paradoxical effects of Benzodiazepines

Hi there Caesarjbsquitti, I've looked at the articles you cite and they make only passing reference to psychosis and cite single case studies when they do. This information would seem to be much better suited in the benzodiazepine article, rather than the psychosis one, and owing to the strength of the evidence, is perhaps worth including in an abbreviated form. - Vaughan (talk) 14:20, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

ICU Psychosis

Somewhere in the beginning of this article it should be mentioned that no one knows the cause of psychosis in mental illness. A clear differentiation should be made between substance caused physical and biological mental conditions that have psychotic-like behavior and true psychosis with no known cause.

ICU Psychosis is not understood by physicians. Some claim it is delirium but others point to the fact that the delusional episode sometimes continues after the subject leaves the ICU. A very few victims have life long disability from ICU Psychosis. Understanding the cause of ICU Psychosis is critical to understanding psychotic mental states. While in the ICU patients do little besides daydream. In that eyes-open mental state they can subliminally detect movement around them as nurses and others approach. That is a description of Subliminal Distraction exposure. Subliminal Distraction is explained in college psychology under psychophysics. Although arising from the basic facts in the physiology of sight and hearing, it is little known by the general population. Visual Subliminal Distraction was discovered to cause mental breaks for office workers in the 1960's. Most victim quickly recover with no treatment once the stimulus of the subconscious from failed attempts to trigger the vision startle reflex stop. In psychology it is treated as something that happened once a long time ago. In Design it is understood to be a current problem but believed to cause only a harmless temporary episode that remits with no treatment. Once you understand it is a problem of human physiology you will realize it will happen any place you create the "special circumstances" of those 1960's office workstations. Similar psychotic mental events happen to those who perform too many Qi Gong sessions in a compact time frame. There too the concentration to use eyes-open meditation engages a mental state that allows threat-movement to be subliminally detected. It is difficult for some to conceive that the groups of moving meditating people are creating the circumstances for SD exposure. Beliefs that acolytes can throw Chee energy from their fingertips to strike others is psychotic but not recognized as such. This is one of the cases where it is believed the subject just has a different reality. In Kundalini Yoga the belief that you can overcome gravity by the will of your mind and levitate is also psychotic but again not recognized as such. Kundalini Yoga is another group exercise with eyes-open meditation and movement in peripheral vision. This is the same special circumstances as Qi Gong. Both exercises have been known for mental problems for about 3000 years. VisonAndPsychosis.Net is the first to propose a physical cause for the two exercise's mental events and bizarre beliefs. Since 1977 there have been studies in an attempt to explain why sitting in the audience at a seminar, The Forum, causes mental breaks. Landmark Education warns potential seminar participants about the mental problems but they do not understand why they happen. While attending the lecture or participating in group activities mental investment allows Subliminal Distraction exposure. Only a few have the mental events but there has been one murder of a postal worker caused by the psychotic episode from this seminar. The shooter recovered completely in one week and had no other episodes during his confinement in a mental institution. Significant in this seminar is that it is a classroom-like situation. No school is aware of this problem and they do not provide Cubicle Level Protection or warn students. There is no mention of this phenomenon or that it is unknown in medicine or psychiatry.

• --Removing outside link per WP:SPAM. User has been repeatedly adding this website to drum up attention.-- Angryapathy (talk) 15:34, 30 November 2009 (UTC)

Researcher44 (talk) 17:52, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

This talk page should focus on discussion of the article. Since the material above does not appear to have been published except on a personal web site, it can't be used in the article, I'm afraid. looie496 (talk) 18:22, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

Localisation of details (legality of certain drugs)

In the "Psychoactive drug use" section, the drugs are sorted into verious categories of legal drugs, and an "illegal drugs" category. I assume this refers to legality in America, where most users seem to be from, but this puts unnecessary bias on some readers, and it is plausible that these categories differ between English speaking countries, and therefore some sort of disclaimer should be made, or the categorisation should be scrapped altogether. 121.73.164.116 (talk) 04:15, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

Early intervention in psychosis

my first wikipedia - have now added article on early intervention. Help please. Cheers Earlypsychosis (talk) 12:47, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Topics from 2009

Postpartum psychosis

I think it should be mentioned and a wikilink should lead to the article, but I'm not sure to what category it belongs. --CopperKettle 18:06, 12 February 2009 (UTC)

classification of psychosis

this is an article about the concept of psychosis - not the DSM classification concept of psychosis. I propose either a rewrite to incorporate a more balanced view of psychosis (other than just diagnostic categories) or delete the section

Earlypsychosis (talk) 08:04, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

How about sketching out here, before you do it, the thrust of the rewrite you would like to do? DSM is an attempt to capture the consensus of the psychiatric community, so it's not clear to me that you can legitimately say it has NPOV issues -- but I'm not a psychiatrist and am open to being convinced. Looie496 (talk) 19:38, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

I'm new to wikipedia and havent read the discussion history on this page...but it does appear to me that there is a massive WP:content fork for mental health conditions -

• some tend to simply follow a DSM format, or at least write with an underlying and unchallenged perspective of clinical psychiatry and diagnosis(sometimes with a brief criticism section)
• others then write their alternative perspectives in other recovery model based articles.

This article on psychosis is a good example. The entire piece is almost entirely written from a DSM perspective, with a very strong balance toward clinical psychiatry. Kraepelin originally conceptualised mental disorders as distinct categories (e.g. Dementia praecox and manic depression) with their own underlying biological disease process. These views have had a major influence on psychiatry, and form the basis of the operational diagnostic criteria. Apart from the 4 lines in the introduction on psychosis in the general population and the history section - the inclusion of sections basically follows these diagnostic assumptions

• symptoms tautological - (psychosis is a symptom?). Also unusual to say that psychosis lacks insight (psychosis by definition ?) and the citation does refer to schizophrenia. should remove this section. ( done Earlypsychosis (talk) 09:39, 15 March 2009 (UTC))
• classification that only looks at DSM (without a challenge or NVOP note)
• causes (all medical or drug - passing mention psychosocial stress, lacks a whole reference to psychological theories)
• Pathophysiology (this reads like a schizophrenia reference - a quick check shows at least one is about schizophrenia and should be removed Ho, BC (2003). "Untreated initial psychosis: relation to cognitive deficits and brain morphology in first-episode schizophrenia". American Journal of Psychiatry. 160 (1): 142–8. PMID 12505813. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help). Not sure why this topic gets its own section in addition to the causes section above.
• treatments - dubious to make an emphasis on this, if a broader non clinical concept of psychosis is being considered

but all too easy to say what is not right...suggest the following sections:

Earlypsychosis (talk) 07:29, 14 March 2009 (UTC)

The section appeared to have quite a bit of original research in it which I have deleted. It may need a further rewrite or even deleted altogether as has been suggested but I think that I have resolved the most glaring problems with it.--Literaturegeek | T@1k? 14:37, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

it wasn't original research. In fact, you deleted one of the only statements about psychosis as a symptom (and not an illness) - making it even more unbalanced, as per the tag. Maybe better to add a tag. Earlypsychosis (talk) 09:53, 5 April 2009 (UTC)

I don't mind if you want to add back in about psychosis being a symptom, not an illness.--Literaturegeek | T@1k? 16:49, 5 April 2009 (UTC)

Yes psychosis can be a symptom, but we would most commonly use it as an adjective - saying 'psychotic symptoms' rather than as a noun. Psychotic symptoms can exist in mania, depression and as a brief reaction in some personality disorders (borderline and schizotypal in particular). Casliber (talk · contribs) 20:18, 5 April 2009 (UTC)

Looks like this has been resolved. Sorry for deleting it. I think the issue is how it is worded. Casliber do you think that it needs rewording further? I am not sure that it sounds right. If so feel free to give it a quick tweak. Maybe it should say something like,,,,,, psychotic symptoms or episodes can occur in several mental health disorders without a person meeting the criteria of having a psychotic disorder..... How does that sound?--Literaturegeek | T@1k? 20:27, 5 April 2009 (UTC)

Reword needed, but also need to include the perspective that psychosis can occur without distress or impairment of functioning - i.e. psychotic experiences that are not considered a clinical disorder - such as hearing voices. That is why I added the NPOV tag. Earlypsychosis (talk) 08:11, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

True true, people can hear voices without actually being psychotic. They can still be in touch with reality and not even be distressed by the voices. This subject is more complicated than what first meets the eye! Thank goodness I am not a psychologist or psychiatrist!!! ;-)--Literaturegeek | T@1k? 08:20, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

Maybe it should read "psychotic symptoms or episodes can occur without a person meeting the criteria of having a psychotic disorder."? Minus the mental health disorder.--Literaturegeek | T@1k? 08:20, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

Right - facts:

• the psychoses are a group of disorders where the main disturbance is deterioration on function psychotic symptoms (AH, delusions or thought disorder, or catatonia)

• they include schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, schizophreniform psychosis mainly, and psychoses secondary to meds or drugs.

• One can also get psychotic symptoms in mood disorders and some personality disorders (postpartum psychosis is often seen as part of a mood disorder spectrum)

• One can have nonpsychotic AH (hypnogogic and hypnopompic are normal), also occur in BPD, hwere they are often described as dissociative in character.

• Yes the classification of psychosis has changed and evolved and it needs to be in the article - the definition used to be much broader in Kraepelin's day etc. and include what is now BAD and melancholic or major depression.

• APART from classification, we have psychotic symptoms. Yes they can also occur in delirium and dementia, but we often don't call them that there, also character is different - eg visual hallucinations are not usually associated with schizophrenia.

Just some notes - that is how the term is seen psychiatrically these days. Casliber (talk · contribs) 10:24, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

right, more factors!

• psychotic symptoms. common in the general population. might not result in decline in functioning. not widely considered within psychiatric profession
• psychotic disorder. psychotic symptoms regarded as a clinical condition (ie where functioning is impaired)
• formal psychotic conditions as defined by various manuals (DSM or ICD) Earlypsychosis (talk) 08:00, 9 May 2009 (UTC)

References to the "DSM-IV-TR" verge on jargon, confusing to the layperson. I've changed the reference to refer to the "most recent version of" the DSM and relegated "IV-TR" to a footnote. --Whoosit (talk) 15:10, 20 June 2009 (UTC)

lack of insight deleted

this is the deleted section on insight. Five of the six references provided were for schizophrenia, not psychosis. Kept this section for review. Earlypsychosis (talk) 19:56, 14 March 2009 (UTC)

Lack of insight

One important and puzzling feature of psychosis is usually an accompanying lack of insight into the unusual, strange, or bizarre nature of the person's experience or behavior. name=Carpenter_et_al_1973>Carpenter, William T., Jr., John S. Strauss, and John J. Bartko (December 21, 1973). "Flexible system for the diagnosis of schizophrenia: Report from the WHO international pilot study of schizophrenia". Science. 182 (4118): 1275–8. doi:10.1126/science.182.4118.1275. PMID 4752222. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link). Even in the case of an acute psychosis, people may be completely unaware that their vivid hallucinations and delusions are in any way "unrealistic". This is not an absolute, however; insight can vary between individuals and throughout the duration of the psychotic episode.

It was previously believed that lack of insight was related to general cognitive dysfunction name=Lysaker_et_al_1994>Lysaker, Paul H. (1994). "Insight and cognitive impairment in schizophrenia. Performance on repeated administrations of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test". Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease. 182 (11): 656–60. PMID 7964675. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help) or to avoidant coping style. name=Lysaker_et_al_2003>Lysaker, Paul H. (January 1, 2003). "Insight in schizophrenia: associations with executive function and coping style". Schizophrenia Research. 59 (1): 41–7. doi:10.1016/S0920-9964(01)00383-8. PMID 12413641. Retrieved 2006-10-22. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help). Later studies have found no statistical relationship between insight and cognitive function, either in groups of people who only have schizophrenia, Freudenreich, Oliver (2004). "Insight into current symptoms of schizophrenia. Association with frontal cortical function and affect". Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica. 110 (1): 14–20. doi:10.1111/j.1600-0447.2004.00319.x. PMID 15180775. Retrieved 2006-10-22. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help) or in groups of psychotic people from various diagnostic categories. name=Cuesta_et_al_2006>Cuesta, Manuel J. (May 31, 2006). "Insight dimensions and cognitive function in psychosis: a longitudinal study". BMC Psychiatry. 6: 26–35. doi:10.1186/1471-244X-6-26. PMID 16737523. Retrieved 2006-10-22. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link)

Thought disorder

is thought disorder necessarily a symptom of psychosis? Might be more accurate to exclude from this article. Earlypsychosis (talk) 10:16, 5 April 2009 (UTC)

Not entirely clear what question you are asking. Is it "Can there be psychosis without thought disorder?" or "Can there be thought disorder without psychosis?"? Looie496 (talk) 16:40, 5 April 2009 (UTC)

It is a psychotic symptom, just as much as auditory hallucinations or delusions - eg hebephrenia (now disorganized schizophrenia) is a psychosis where the predominant symptom is thought disorder. Casliber (talk · contribs) 20:20, 5 April 2009 (UTC)

yes - thought disorder is more commonly only associated with serious mental illness, such as disorganised schizophrenia. Psychosis could be sufficiently explained in simply terms of delusions and hallucinations. Earlypsychosis (talk) 07:55, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

The fact is that thought disorder is a psychotic symptom, and one which may define any psychotic illness. It is not a delusion nor a hallucination. You may want to restrict psychosis to delusions and hallucinations but that would be original research. have you got some scholarly publication which does this? Casliber (talk · contribs) 08:04, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

So if I find one, then I can delete thought disorder? Earlypsychosis (talk) 08:18, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

Ahem (a) let's see what it is (i.e should be some form of review article or authortiative text) and (b) get a consensus. Casliber (talk · contribs) 10:15, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

If medical science and psychiatry include thought disorder as a form of psychosis, wiki editors shouldn't choose to present incomplete info just because it's a preference, easier, or to be like other websites. If peer review articles are found, they merit notation, not deletion of the section unless the symptom is officially no longer part of psychosis. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kfcinca (talk • contribs) 01:59, 14 May 2009 (UTC)

edited lead section

deleted this sentence and references

This disease link has led to the metaphor of psychosis as the 'fever' of CNS illness—a serious but nonspecific indicator. Tsuang MT, Stone WS, Faraone SV (2000). "Toward reformulating the diagnosis of schizophrenia". Am J Psychiatry. 157 (7): 1041–50. PMID 10873908. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) DeLage, J. (1955). "[Moderate psychosis caused by mumps in a child of nine years.]". Laval Médical. 20 (2): 175–183. PMID 14382616. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)

• not good sentence for the lead section
• reference is about the diagnosis of schizophrenia and a quick read of the abstract doesnt mention the line in sentence fever of CNS
• 1955 reference about mumps not the best

Earlypsychosis (talk) 08:18, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

Does anyone find this biased?

"However, increasing evidence in recent times has pointed to a possible dysfunction of the excitory neurotransmitter glutamate, in particular, with the activity of the NMDA receptor. This theory is reinforced by the fact that dissociative NMDA receptor antagonists such as ketamine, PCP and dextromethorphan/detrorphan (at large overdoses) induce a psychotic state more readily than dopinergic stimulants, even at "normal" recreational doses. The symptoms of dissociative intoxication are also considered to mirror the symptoms of schizophrenia more closely, including negative psychotic symptoms than amphetamine psychosis. Dissociative induced psychosis happens on a more reliable and predictable basis than amphetamine psychosis, which usually only occurs in cases of overdose, prolonged use or with sleep deprivation, which can independently produce psychosis. New antipsychotic drugs which act on glutamate and its receptors are currently undergoing clinical trials."

I suspect this is someone with a personal ax to grind against dissociative drugs. Specifically because it has no sources and it's written from an anti-drug perspective. As someone who has actually done research on this I've yet to find any scientific info claiming ketamine, PCP, or DXM cause psychosis —Preceding unsigned comment added by YVNP (talk • contribs) 10:01, 22 November 2009 (UTC)

I'm not an expert in this area, but a Google Scholar search for "ketamine-induced psychosis" turns up lots of references, including rather definitive things such as PMID 9167508. There are also reviews discussing this topic, for example PMID 17349858. Looie496 (talk) 17:02, 22 November 2009 (UTC)

I looked around too and it does seem there are mentions of dissociatives causing psychosis. The problem I have is it seems to be suggesting that the dissociative experience is basically the psychotic experience. The problem I have is that generally when someone hallucinates from dissociatives they are aware that there hallucinations are personal where as a psychotic patient usually wouldn't. YVNP (talk) 10:23, 23 November 2009 (UTC)

If that point can be referenced to a high-quality source (i.e., something like a review article in a top-level journal), it would probably be worth adding to the article. Looie496 (talk) 17:29, 23 November 2009 (UTC)

On erowid I found some articles discussing dissociatives. According to those articles dissociatives usually induce "closed eye visuals" and "detached" states of mind. I'll try adding them. YVNP (talk) 01:19, 24 November 2009 (UTC)

Religious delusion?

Somebody who is familiar with the Moore & Gordon "audio essay" (whatever that is) cited here might want to double-check that the "Jesus's twin" statement actually is used in the context of delusions. Perhaps it is, but to me that sounds far more like a classic case of clanging. Also, on an unrelated note, somebody who is familiar with User:MiszaBot might want to get some archiving going on this page. The current format is a tad unwieldy. Cosmic Latte (talk) 17:09, 23 November 2009 (UTC)

extreme?

explain immediately what is meant by "extreme form of consciousness" or I'll delete it as unrepresentative of the views of the scientific community, and an illdefined phrase unfairly weighted towards the views of a minority. if you know what consciousness is, let us know. if not, it's not teneble to ascribe magnitude to it. If you're about to give me some r.d. laing nonsense or give me the "arrogant ignorant scientist" spiel, then: don't. very kindest wishes 86.26.173.195 (talk) 02:07, 17 March 2010 (UTC) (colin reveley, sackler centre for consciousness science Univ. Sussex)

Differences from delirium

I think the introduction should say how psychosis is different from delirium.Stefan Udrea (talk) 15:20, 15 June 2011 (UTC)