The Kaleidoscope World of Psychotic Depression
Seeing flying purple elephants, dead people and talking objects, these are some of the side effects of psychotic
depression. Entertaining, as it may seem, having psychotic depression is a very serious condition. It is a type of
depression that is accompanied with delusions, which are irrational thoughts and fears and hallucinations, in which
you see and hear nonexistent things
However, there are also other types of depression that is accompanied with hallucinations. The difference is that
people with psychotic depression know that their thoughts are not true.
Seeing the Signs and Wonders
The common symptoms of psychotic depression are anxiety, hypochondria, and agitation. You can also have difficulty
sleeping and develop insomnia. There are times in which you become sedentary. You also tend to have digestion
problems, especially constipation. Your cognitive skills are also affected greatly to the point of impairment.
Then you start having hallucinations where you start seeing surreal things like flying objects and talking
nonliving things. You also develop delusional thoughts, like paranoia and other unreasonable fears.
The Cause
The cause of psychotic depression is not yet identified but research shows that it is linked to a certain hormone
named Cortical; which your body produces in large volumes especially when you are stressed out. Unlike other kinds
of depression there are no specific risk factors for the incidence of psychotic depression.
The Treatment
When you are being treated for psychotic depression, it would require you for a long hospital stay. You also have
to undergo close check-ups and follow-ups with a mental healthcare professional.
An antidepressant drugs alone are not enough to treat this kind of depression. Usually, a combination use of
antipsychotic medications and tricyclic antidepressants work best for treatment. For those cases with bipolar
disorder, lithium is added to the drugs to reach optimal results.
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is often a last resort, which is used to treat extreme cases. Although this kind of
therapy has good results, it is never used without due consideration. The whole treatment process should be
administered and done by a trained professional, usually a psychiatrist.
It usually takes up a year for a psychotic depressive patient to recover. The psychotic symptoms may not return any
more after you are treated, but you can still have some visitations from the symptoms of depression. That’s why it
is very important to have regular check-ups even after treatment, and continued medication for depression if your
doctor advises you to do so.
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