Phencyclidine drug related psychotic disorders

ANGEL OR DEVIL DUST ?

DRUGS ARE NOT GOING TO LET YOU HAVE A GOOD LIFE , BUT MIGHT RUIN THE CHANCES OF HAVING ONE , OR RUIN THE ONE THAT YOU ALREADY HAVE.

Drugs might brighten your day , but will dim you mentally. 

Definition- 

PHENCYCLIDINE or phenylcyclohexyl piperidine is actually a drug. It is also known locally as angel dust which is quite used for its overwhelming , hallucinatory , distorted voices (not necessary to be real life voices , it can perceived) and it may cause aggressive behavior.

PHENCYCLIDINE is a synthetic compound produced from piperidine (an organic compound) and is commonly used for veterinary anesthetic.

THE DISORDERS THAT COME WITH USAGE OF ANGEL DUST ARE

SCHIZOPHRENIA – It is a type of mental disorder which lets the diagnosed person perceive the reality in an absurd , delusional and abnormal way.

It usually affects the family and all people surrounding that particular diagnosed person on a whole new level as the patient has an delusional thinking process and a violent behavior.

There are many symptoms for detecting schizophrenia which are grouped into three categories they are – POSITIVE SYMPTOMS , NEGATIVE SYMPTOMS , PSYCHOMOTOR SYMPTOMS.

 

POSITIVE SYMPTOMS (too much of thoughts and emotions flowing and behavior change )- 

Delusions , distorted thinking and speech skills , excessively heightened perceptivity and hallucinations are  the most common symptoms that are identifiable in schizophrenia . The person’s behavior is based on excessive nature and bizarre additions .

Most of the times people with schizophrenia develop DELUSIONS.

DELUSIONS

Delusions are fake/ false belief which is strongly held with no proofs or evidences .  It has no relation with reality , hence no rationality can be of help.  The person is deceived into the artificial world of his own , the one created by themselves.

Types of delusion :

• Delusions of persecution :  Person believes that they are threatened by someone , or some is trying to plot something against them , someone might be spying on them , or they might feel being targeted at all times in minor situations.
• Delusions of reference : person in this situation perceives everything being referred to them . they look up to things for attachment , and might consolidate it with some special personal meaning.
• Delusions of grandeur : as the name suggests , it refers to a person feeling as if they are above everyone at every time and looking down at other people in context of money , job, house, traits , and everything else . they also feel empowered and think they are the most powerful out of all.
• Delusions of control : persons diagnosed with this usually believe that their emotions are being controlled by someone else just like their brain , their actions , their behavior and actions.
• NEGATIVE SYMPTOMS (lack of thoughts , emotions ) –

Lack of speech, loss of motivation to do any task or activity , lack of facial expression in context to emotions and the need to stay away from social meetings of any kind.  Person might not be able to communicate better through their vocal strength or speech.

Types of negative symptoms

• BLUNT AFFECT – People with schizophrenia show very little emotions or feelings like happy , sad , stress , and aggression compared with normal people. Thus this affect is called blunt effect ,.i.e. ,not showing enough reactions or expressions.
• FLAT AFFECT – persons in this situation actually cannot express their emotions or feelings through facial expressions. May express in monotonous voice.
• AVOLITION – person in this situation are not goal oriented or they are not motivated. They are not able to experience things . Person might withdraw themself completely from social interaction.

Psychomotor Symptoms- Repetitive actions , clumsy , weird behavior and sitting in one place with no movement can be counted as one of its symptoms .

 

Catatonia

They either move with odd manner , behavior and gestures . person doesn’t move in a normal way, they would have .

Different type of catatonia are :

• Catatonic stupor – person in this situation remains silent and rigid in one place  .i.e. motionless ; even without speaking a word as if being lost for long period of time.
• Catatonic rigidity – person in this situation remains in one rigid sitting or any posture for long stretches of hours .
• Catatonic posturing – person in this situation attains weird postures and maintains those absurd posture for long periods .

Addiction of drug’s general dangers –

• Severe anxiety
• Depression
• Poor judgement skills
• High blood pressure disease
• Heart related medical diseases
• Perception disorders
• Violent oriented behavior
• Poor relationship status
• Feeling light-headed
• Disorganized life

• Memory impairment – person in this situation experiences loss memory frequently or the events that took place before and after the drug was consumed.

• Poor judgmental skills – person might actually loose the ability to judge people well and might get into troublesome problems or dangerous situations.

• Anxiety disorder – person in this situation have a sudden very abrupt  feeling of worry , stress and fear. Types of anxiety disorders :

• General anxiety disorder – person in this has very unclear and is strongly afraid of nothing in particular for longer hour durations.  This includes tensions about future goals and lives.
• Panic disorder – person in this has frequent panic attacks , that is , the fear and tension is so much that the person’s body cannot accept the stress it gets pushed under.
• Hence, body reacts with dizziness , shortness/heaving  of breath. Person usually has a particular thing which triggers panic attack.
• Phobias – person in this disorder is irrationally afraid of specific or particular objects. Thee can be further classified into 3 more sub- parts.

• Specific phobia – these include irrational intense fear of animals , being left alone , of closed/ small spaces or of crowds.
• Social environment phobias – in this situation person feels embarrassed or is uneasy with social interaction.
• Agoraphobia – in this situation the person is afraid of entering new environment or places which are not familiar or specifically they don’t like to leave their house.