Psychosis is a term used to describe a person experiencing things differently from those around them.

Psychotic features include:

• hallucinations (e.g. auditory)
• delusions
• thought disorganisation
  • alogia: little information conveyed by speech
  • tangentiality: answers diverge from topic
  • clanging
  • word salad: linking real words incoherently → nonsensical content

Associated features:

• agitation/aggression
• neurocognitive impairment (e.g. in memory, attention or executive function)
• depression
• thoughts of self-harm

Psychotic symptoms may occur in a number of conditions:

• schizophrenia: the most common psychotic disorder
• depression (psychotic depression, a subtype more common in elderly patients)
• bipolar disorder
• puerperal psychosis
• brief psychotic disorder: where symptoms last less than a month
• neurological conditions e.g. Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease
• prescribed drugs e.g. corticosteroids
• certain illicit drugs e.g. cannabis, phencyclidine

The peak age of first-episode psychosis is around 15-30 years.