Ami Kukadia
People often misunderstand the mental health and mental disorders with a bad day or bad time. Mental health issues and disorders are as important as a person suffering from cancer. People’s judgement with respect to mental health is less subjective. With the studies going on worldwide regarding mental health out of 100 only 40% people receive mental care the remaining ones are either neglected saying “It will pass” or they are just shut down.
Delusional disorder also known as paranoid disorder. It’s a mental illness and a psychotic disorder where a sufferer can’t identify what’s real from what is imagined. Word ‘delude’ is a Latin word which means playing, mocking, defrauding or cheating. There could be several reasons which can cause delusion disorders. Studies showed that females are highly diagnosed with delusional disorder compared to men. It could be due to:
Genetic – If a family member has delusional disorder or schizophrenia, the child has higher changes because of the genes involvement.
Biological – When a part of a brain is abnormal or has been damaged, a person could possibly end up with delusional disorder. Researchers are still working on the biological effects.
Environmental/psychological – Stress can trigger the delusion disorder. Alcohol and drug abuse might also contribute to it.
A person can experience any one of these types of delusions :
Bizarre delusions – Something that could possibly never happen in real life,such as being cloned by aliens or your thoughts being broadcast on TV.
Non-bizarre delusions – Situations that can take place in real life, like being poisoned, followed by someone or attacked by someone etc.
Although, delusions could be signs or symptoms of a common disorder such as schizophrenia (a chronic, mental disorder that affects the person’s thinking ability, to express, to act etc). Delusional disorder itself is very rare but there are chances.
People who suffered from delusional disorder were David Letterman, Story Musgrave, John Nash Jr. and many more.
Symptoms and Types of symptoms of Delusion disorder :-
Diagnosis :-
Since this disorder is rare, it is slightly difficult to mention the cause. But a doctor should evaluate the possibilities of other mental illnesses that could have delusions as symptoms. People who suffer from Alzheimer’s disease or dementia can later become delusional or show symptoms of it.
When a person is suffering from mental illnesses like delusional disorder it’s hard to diagnose them because the disorder conceals his or her thoughts. And because they are convinced of their thoughts, that they refuse to take treatment. In some cases,a family talk or therapy helps to diagnose the person. Some cases where medical or neurological problems are involved, diagnostic tests such as electroencephalogram (EEG), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or computed tomography (CT) scans may be suggested.
Treatment :-
Antipsychotic drugs are given to the patient. With the recent research going on, the result showed that Pimozide and Clozapine medications have their positive effects on patients suffering from delusional disorder. 50% of cases showed a positive response to medication treatment.
Psychotherapies like CBT (Cognitive behavioural therapy) ,Family therapy, personal psychotherapy are also considered to be a source for treating the people.
Prevention:
There are no such signs or data that proves that you can prevent the delusional disorders. But early diagnosis and treatment could help people and their family.
References:-
1.Mike Skelton, Waqqas Ahmad Khokhar, and Simon P. Thacker; Treatment of Delusional Disorder, 2015 Sep; 41(5):1010-1012.
2.Joseph Goldberg, MD; Delusions & Delusional Disorders; 2018 Dec.
3.health.harvard.edu.
A very interesting article!
It was needed from someone to bring out the difference between the meaning of mental health and mental disorder and the need to be on a look out, thank you for doing so. Since you have put your focus on a specific disorder (delusional disorder), it would be helpful to the reader if you had mentioned what would be the life of an individual suffering from the disorder and how it affected their routine.
Overall, I am delighted to read your article. Keep up the good work!
I really loved the title. It already gave me the idea that delusions would be covered. I enjoyed reading the article as it is my subject of interest. Delusions are often made fun of or considered to be something extreme and people seeing them are considered hostile which is very sad. I like the flow of article and how you tried to describe it. A personal touch or additional information would’ve made it even better. Overall it was lovely though. Good job!
the title itself was so catchy that I had to read the post. The article has been nicely written and it told me everything about delusion. the article was totally on point. Amazing work!
Very engaging and informative! Brownie points for the title, got me to come take a look and i was hooked all along. However i really wished you could explain the signs and symptoms more precisely and also talk about the prevalence of experiencing delusions. Also would’ve been helpful if you could insert links to the medical terms used for convenience.
The article is very specific about the information about the disorder, also the language is very easy to understand. More information about symptoms could be added so as to give more information to the reader. Also, the comorbidity with other disorders and if there are some factors that overlap with other disorders or can create confusion about a diagnosis can also be added.
great informative article..thanks for this one