Psychotic Disorders

Psychotic disorders are characterized by dysregulation of thought processes.  In particular, schizophrenia has hallmark symptoms of delusions – which are false beliefs – and hallucinations – which are hearing and/or seeing sensory information which is not actually present and is not apparent to others.  Schizoaffective disorder is a disorder in which, as its name implies, individuals have features of both schizophrenia and mood disorders.¹  Typically, psychotic disorders are treated with antipsychotic medications and some forms of psychosocial interventions.²

References

1. Sadock BJ, Sadock VA. Kaplan & Sadock’s Synopsis of Psychiatry: BehavioralSciences/Clinical Psychiatry (10th ed.).  Philadelphia, PA, Lippincott, Williams, & Wilkins;2007.
2. Andreasen NC, Black DW.  Introductory Textbook of Psychiatry. (4th ed.). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc., 2006

More detail on mental health/mental illnesses may be found at: http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/index.shtml or www.samhsa.gov/