In your work, you should consider the possibility of a psychosis if you see a person whose behaviour has any of the features listed in Box 13.1.
Box 13.1 Recognition of psychoses
Suspect possible psychosis if someone is:
- talking and acting strangely or in a manner that you and others consider to be abnormal
- becoming very quiet and avoiding talking to, or mixing with, other people
- claiming to hear voices or see things that other people don't
- being very suspicious, perhaps claiming that other people are trying to harm them
- being unusually cheerful, exhibiting high levels of confidence in their own abilities and expressing an exaggerated sense of their own importance in relation to others.
When you suspect someone is suffering from a form of psychosis, you need to ask the patient (and others) questions to find out the type and severity of the condition (Figure 13.2).
For details of the most effective questions to assist your assessment, refer back to Study Sessions 10 and 11 of this Module.
Figure 13.2 A healthworker needs to find out everything she can about a person with psychosis.