Acute psychosis can be caused by various factors, including mental illness, infection, and drug use. Treatment can be difficult, and in some cases, patients may need to be treated without their consent. The length of the acute psychotic state depends on the cause and the availability of effective treatment. Patients with mental illness may be treated in a mental health facility, while those with other causes are usually treated in a standard hospital.
Acute psychosis is a condition usually differentiated from chronic psychosis. Chronic psychosis tends to refer to a long-lasting condition, in which people can sometimes act normally, but at other times may suffer bouts of rage, hallucinations, delusions, and the like. People who have schizophrenia may have periods like this despite medication, and their condition is therefore chronic.
This does not mean that a person who has a chronic psychotic condition has never suffered from acute psychosis. The onset of their illness may have resulted in sudden symptoms of psychosis that are difficult to confuse, and those phases in which a person is significantly out of touch with reality can be considered acute phases. However, acute psychosis does not always indicate mental illness. Some people suffer from it due to illness, infection, high fever, use of illegal and/or legal medicines and drugs, or for other reasons. Trying to identify the cause of acute psychosis is part of the doctors’ job to ensure that treatment is appropriate.
Treatment can be difficult because a person with acute psychosis can be violent, can be a danger to themselves or others, and are usually not aware enough to fully consent to treatment. In most cases, family members who usually notice symptoms early take those who suddenly develop psychotic symptoms to the hospital. The emphasis in treatment is to protect patients, protect staff, and seek to resolve apparent symptoms so that a diagnosis and course of treatment can be determined.
In a hospital setting, a person with acute psychosis may need to be treated without their consent. This may mean giving the patient tranquilizers and, if necessary, placing them in restraints. If the psychosis has resulted in self-harming actions such as suicide attempts, the necessary treatment is given to combat things such as overdose or injury. However, it can be very difficult to treat a person if they are in a combative or resistant state, so the first goal is usually to use medications that promote calmer demeanor.
An acute psychotic state can be of very short duration, lasting only a few hours, or it can be more long-lasting and persist for several weeks. Much depends on the cause, the ability to diagnose, whether the causative condition will go into remission, and the availability of effective treatment. Even a person with severe onset of things like hallucinations may have moments of clarity and be able to participate in treatment decisions.
When the cause is clearly due to a mental illness, patients may spend time in a mental health facility, where staff are better trained to help patients with acute psychosis and to make decisions about how best to treat those patients. Usually, a person who becomes psychotic for other reasons, such as occasional drug use or a serious infection, is treated in a standard hospital, where once treatment is started, the acute psychosis is unlikely to recur.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
