What is psychosis?

Psychosis can happen to anyone. Like any other illness, it can be treated.

Facts:

  • Psychosis often strikes young people in their prime
  • Psychosis distorts the senses, making it very difficult for the ill person to tell what is real from what is not real
  • The risk period of first-episode psychosis is 14 to 35 but is most common in late teens and early 20's
  • Men and women are affected with equal frequency, but for men, the age of onset for psychosis is often earlier than for women, in teens and early twenties
  • For women, the age of onset can be later, half of the women who develop psychosis start their difficulties in their early twenties
  • Medical assessment and treatment are necessary
  • Early assessment, education and treatment greatly improve outcomes for the individual and their family
  • The word psychosis is used to describe a mental health problem that can affect the brain, so that there is a loss of contact with reality.  When someone becomesdevelops a mental health problem in this way it is called a psychotic episoide
  • Psychosis is most likely to occur in young adults and is quite common
  • About 3 out of every 100 people will experience a psychotic episode, making psychosis more common than diabetes.  Most people make a full recovery from the experience.

First-episode psychosis

First-episode psychosis refers to the first time a person experiences psychotic symptoms.  Someone experiencing a first-espisode psychosis may not understand what is happening.  Symptoms are unfamiliar and frightening, leaving the person confused and distressed.  If they do not know the facts and have no real understanding about mental illness, their distress may be increased by negative myths and stereotypes.  A psychotic episode occurs in three phases.  The length of each phase varies from person to person.

Phase 1: prodrome

The early signs of psychosis are vague and sometimes hardly noticable. There may be changes in the way people describe their feelings, thoughts and perceptions.

Phase 2: acute

Clear psychotic symptoms are experienced, such as disorganised thinking, hallucinations or delusions.

Phase 3: recovery

Psychosis is treatable and most people recover. The pattern of recovey varies from person to person.
People recover from first-episode psychosis.  A quarter of people never experience another psychotic episode.

Further information