What Are Psychotic Affective Mental Disorders?

Affective mental disorders imply depression and mania,with psychotic symptoms such as delusional perception, thought disorders, hallucinations (usually hearing voices that directly speak to the person), excessive excitement, motoric restlessness and activity, flight of ideas, inability to think consistently and so on.

Psychotic depression can lead to the patient being in a state of so-called stupor, i.e. not moving, not eating, not drinking, etc.

What is Schizophrenia?

Schizophrenic disorders entail a change in thinking and perception, as well as an affect that is inadequate or flat. Conscience and intellectual capacity may be unaffected, although cognitive deficiencies occur over time. The symptoms may include voiced thoughts, delusional thinking, delusions of grandeur, special talents and powers, ideas of guilt, that someone is controlling one’s thoughts, ideas of persecution or external control.

In addition to thought disorders, symptoms also may include speech disorders, incomprehensible speech, jumbled or logically inconsistent. Hallucinations are certainly the defining symptom of psychotic disorders and they can be auditory, visual, and sometimes olfactory, tactile, etc.

The negative symptoms of schizophrenia imply social withdrawal, dulled affects, loss of volition, and occasional schizophrenic stupor.

• Schizophrenia usually first manifests itself between the ages of 16 and 26, although it may occur also later in life. Schizophrenia affects around 1 percent of the population.
• Around one third of persons with schizophrenia experience only one or several brief episodes in their lifetime. Others may experience it occasionally throughout their life.
• The disease may appear quickly, with acute symptoms that develop over the course of several weeks, or gradually, with the deterioration taking months or years.
• The first symptoms may include withdrawal, increased anxiety and fear, and some behaviour that may by considered odd by their surroundings. Identifying the initial signs is important in order to provide early treatment, which is of crucial importance for the person’s future mental health.

Schizophrenia may be paranoid, hebephrenic, catatonic, etc.

Paranoia or Delusional Disorder

Paranoia is a disorder that entails the occurrence of a delusional idea or organised set of delusional ideas that are persistent, sometimes lifelong. The content of the delusional idea may vary significantly. Paranoia does not include schizophrenic symptoms such as persistent and clear hallucination, flat affect, ideas of being controlled, etc., although short-lived auditory hallucinations may occur in elderly patients.