Organic psychosis is a mental state caused by a physical condition, such as brain injury or disease, while functional psychosis has no biological origin. Symptoms include altered perception, hallucinations, delusions, and thought disorders. Causes range from fever to dementia. The terms “organic psychosis” and “functional psychosis” are no longer commonly used.
An organic psychosis is an abnormal mental state with a known physical cause characterized by an altered perception of reality. This condition can be acute, as in the case of psychosis caused by some form of intoxication, or chronic, as in the case of dementia. Organic psychoses can have many different causes, ranging from traumatic brain injury or drug abuse to contracting a brain disease. In each case, however, a physical and biological cause can be found to explain the problem. Conversely, a functional psychosis is an abnormal mental state that cannot be traced back to a concrete biological origin.
The symptoms of psychosis can vary greatly from person to person, although everyone is characterized by an altered perception of reality. Individuals suffering from this condition may experience hallucinations, delusions and thought disturbances of various forms. Hallucinations occur when an individual perceives something, such as a sound or image, that isn’t actually there. Auditory hallucinations are the most common of those experienced by those with psychosis, although hallucinations involving all of the senses can be experienced.
A person suffering from organic psychosis may also suffer from delusions or beliefs that have no basis in reality. These beliefs often come in the form of paranoia, and a deluded individual may believe for no reason that there are people or forces that are actively trying to harm them. Psychotics also sometimes suffer from thought disorders, with their ability to form coherent associations often declining as their psychosis worsens. This often becomes apparent through incoherent speech or writing.
There are many different possible causes of organic psychosis. Sometimes, the cause can be as simple and correctable as a fever caused by an infection. The increase in body temperature alters body chemistry and can lead to an acute state of psychosis commonly referred to as delirium. In other cases, it may have a cause that is neither simple nor correctable. Aging, for example, causes some forms of dementia, such as Alzheimer’s disease and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Both have identifiable biological causes and both cause psychosis, but neither can be cured and both tend to get worse over time.
The classification of psychoses has changed over time and the terms “organic psychosis” and “functional psychosis” have fallen out of common usage. Psychoses are generally divided into psychoses due to general medical conditions, traditional psychotic illnesses, and substance-induced psychoses. Organic examples can be found within each of these categories.
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