Psychosis In Women - Psychosis In Pregnant Women, Postpartum Psychosis

2024 Author: Josephine Shorter | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 21:43

Psychosis in pregnant women, postpartum psychosis

Definition of disease

Psychosis in translation from the ancient Greek language is a disorder of the soul, a disorder of the state. Psychosis is a pronounced and clearly damaged mental activity, which is manifested by reactions of the psyche that contradict the actual situation. Psychoses are grouped into mental disorders, expressed by a distorted perception of the surrounding world, as a result of which human behavior is inadequate. Psychosis is always a non-standard process that can be understood if we proceed from a subjective interpretation of personal and social causes.

Psychosis in pregnant women

The normal course of pregnancy has a beneficial effect on the female body, this also applies to concomitant diseases of the somatic and mental types. The development of psychosis during pregnancy is rarely recorded, in one case out of 3500 pregnancies. But, if you look from the other side, pregnancy can be a provocateur for exacerbation or onset of endogenous psychoses. The reason for the onset of psychosis can be severe bleeding, disturbances in the endocrine and vitamin balance.

The presence of toxicosis, disturbed vascular tone, antenatal fetal death and subsequent intoxication, and other complications accompanying pregnancy can also serve as the reason for psychosis. Pregnancy and childbirth make a woman's body, in its own way, sensitive to the effects of various factors of a psycho-traumatic nature, and this, in certain cases, leads to the manifestation of reactive psychosis.

The normal physiological development of pregnancy with good health in the expectant mother who did not have an early mental illness, in the absence of a hereditary factor, practically does not give a chance for psychosis to appear. Complication of pregnancy with toxicosis in the study of a neuropsychiatric nature can reveal a number of neurotic syndromes. The source for the appearance of vomiting is often a certain conditioned stimulus or a number of such stimuli.

The method of treating toxicosis in early pregnancy, which is based on neurotic manifestations, is being developed by a psychotherapist. Late toxicosis also manifests complications in the form of mental disorders, manifested by anxiety, depression (throwing, inability to find a place for oneself, pulling out hair on the head, trying to throw himself out of the window), auditory hallucinations, which increase the likelihood of actions aimed at self-destruction. The conditions described above require continuous monitoring, taking sedatives.

In some cases, late toxicosis during pregnancy is manifested by a state of numbness. The disease begins with anxiety, confusion, headaches. Then comes an increase in lethargy, difficulty in understanding the world around you, speech becomes laconic (quiet, inaudible), it can completely disappear. Sometimes depressive conditions in the last months of pregnancy are a consequence of a skull injury. This mental disorder is characterized by symptoms such as tearfulness, lethargy, exhaustion.

Postpartum psychosis

Postpartum psychosis is a rare but severe complication that occurs in one out of a thousand young mothers. Its manifestations are very diverse. One of the reasons can be called difficult labor (long-term, cesarean section, large blood loss, blood poisoning). A huge role for the occurrence of postpartum psychosis is assigned to heredity. Complications during pregnancy are conducive to postpartum psychosis, but only in women with a certain psychological personality structure.

Changes in the psyche become noticeable a few days after childbirth (depressed mood, hostility, anger towards the child, indifference). Attitudes towards loved ones can also change regularly. The lack of sleep in the mother, despite fatigue, can be considered a reason to see a doctor. Further, the behavior of a woman towards a child can go beyond the norm even more (tireless custody or complete indifference), there is delirium about the trouble that threatens the child from family members or crazy ideas about the baby's illness.

In the presence of the above behavior, the woman requires treatment, possibly hospitalization. The first step should be to see a doctor to find out the causes of the psychosis. They often have a relationship with physical health, so the psychiatrist works with the therapist to treat. In the event of psychosis, the woman does not understand her position and will not be treated herself. Responsibility for this is assumed by her relatives, they also provide the necessary support during the treatment period.

Article author: Mochalov Pavel Alexandrovich | d. m. n. therapist

Education: Moscow Medical Institute. IM Sechenov, specialty - "General Medicine" in 1991, in 1993 "Occupational Diseases", in 1996 "Therapy".