Psychosis Versus Neurosis What is psychosis? A psychiatric disorder in which the thoughts, affective-response, ability to recognize reality, and ability to communicate and relate to others shows impairment sufficient to interfere grossly with the capacity to deal with reality. The classic characteristics of psychosis are. Impaired reality testing Hallucinations Delusions Disorganization. Psychosis Insight is absent in patients with psychosis.  In patients with psychosis, there is an impairment in judgment and reasoning.  They lose contact with reality. For example, they believe in the voices they hear.  Delusions are often present. Delusions are psychotic features and are never normal (if a belief meets any criteria of normality, it's not a delusion).  True hallucinations are present, even though hallucinations, especially hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations, also occur in normal people.   Patients with psychosis may exhibit changes in personality, especially patients with sc

What are the factors known to improve effective communication? The following is a list of the factors that contribute to effective communication with patients during clinical assessment.  Use Minimal Prompts Interrupting your patient during a clinical assessment prohibits them from explaining their concerns. Points that are important for you as a clinician are often less important for the patient.  Knowing whatever is important to the patients and addressing their concerns is immensely important from a holistic and biopsychosocial model of health care. Using minimal prompts helps patients to communicate their concerns so you can address them.  Sit squarely in relation to the patient Open body position in relation to the patient Leaning slightly towards the client Eye contact maintained Relax while listening Listen to the message content Listen for feelings Respond to feelings Note all non-verbal cues

Risk factors for Parkinsonism The following are some risk factors for Parkinson's disease.  Pesticide exposure Head injury Drinking well water Agricultural occupation Use of beta-blockers.

Development in the first year of life summarised Smiling starts at 3 weeks.  Selective smiling starts at 6 months.  Fear of strangers starts at 8 months, while separation anxiety starts later to that.  At the end of the first year, children also learn a few simple words like mama, dada, etc.  Weaning starts at around 6 months and should have completed by the end of the year.  An ordered sleep-wake cycle has also got established, Children learn to point at objects in the first year of life.

It is classified into three clusters as: Suspicious: which include Antisocial Paranoid Schizoid Schizotypal Emotional and impulsive: Borderline Histrionic Narcissitic Anxious: Avoidant Dependent Obsessive compulsive Another way to classify them is Mad, Bad and Sad respectively for the suspicious, impulsive and anxious clusters. Remember there are no clusters in ICD11 anymore, The individual personality disorders have been eliminated from ICD11.

How do we define NMS? It is an acute disorder of thermoregulation and neuromotor control that occurs because of exposure to dopaminergic drugs. What drugs or medications can cause NMS? Antipsychotics, especially the ones with high anti-dopaminergic potency. But also dopaminergic agonist withdrawal e.g. withdrawal from levodopa.

Criminal behavior, lack of guilt, and irritability are typical features of antisocial personality disorder. Evidence suggests that a low-activity variant of the MAO-A gene predisposes to adult antisocial behavior in men, especially in those who faced early adversity 1–4 . Catechol-O-methyltransferase enzyme metabolizes dopamine and other monoamines. Its gene, the COMT-gene, occurs in two forms: a high-activity form and a low-activity form. They associate these variants with differential abilities of the prefrontal cortex, especially working memory. People with low-activity form may have a more efficient prefrontal cortex, likely because of the greater dopamine level in the synaptic space 5,6 . We have associated serotonin transporter gene variants with neuroticism and a predisposition to depression. The variants may also influence individual response to SSRIs8. APOE4 gene is a risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease (compared to APOE2 and APOE3).