* [mood stabiliser]? |
* mood stabilizer |
Psychosis may the be result of an underlying mental illness such as Bipolar Disorder (also known as Manic Depression), and Schizophrenia. Psychosis may also be exhibited by otherwise normal people who have undergone enormous mental stress or who have taken high doses of drugs such as amphetamines?. This situation is known as "brief reactive psychosis" and in the absence of any mental illness, patients spontantenously recover normal functioning within two weeks.
The division of the major psychoses into Bipolar Disorder and Schizophrenia was made by Emil Kraepelin, who attempted to create a synthesis of the hundreds of mental disorders identified by 19th century psychiatrists, by grouping disases together based on classification of common symptoms. Bipolar Disorder is characterised by problems with mood control, and patients will generally have periods of normal functioning between psychotic episodes even without medication. Schizophrenia is characterized by problems with the perception of reality, and patients who are not under medication will generally not return to normal functioning between psychotic episodes.
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