Brief psychotic disorder appears suddenly and goes away quickly. At least one psychotic symptom — hallucination, delusion, disorganized speech or behavior, or catatonic behavior — appears and disappears within a period of one to thirty days.

The symptoms are not lasting; patients recover and go back to the same level of functioning they had before the symptoms appeared. General medical conditions that could account for the symptoms, such as a drug reaction or a blow to the head, must be eliminated before this diagnosis is made.

Brief psychotic disorder is not often seen by doctors in developed countries, including the United States. Because it can appear and disappear in a matter of days, it is possible some cases are never seen in a medical setting. Like schizophrenia, it can strike adolescents and young adults, but the average age is somewhere around thirty years.

The Stress Factor

Sometimes, brief psychotic disorder follows major stress in someone's life. The horror of combat or a crime or accident could be enough to evoke such a response from some people. For others, the loss of a loved one could precipitate the short-lived symptoms. More than one severely troubling event could also add up to major stress.

For a psychiatrist to diagnose brief psychotic disorder with marked stressors, the precipitating stressful event must be so bad that it would produce significant stress in anyone. In these cases, the disorder might be thought of as a reactive psychosis that doesn't last very long. If there is no record or indication of stressful events preceding the symptoms, the diagnosis is made “without marked stressors,” according to the DSM-IV. If the disorder appears in a woman a month or less after she has given birth, a diagnosis of brief psychotic disorder with postpartum onset is made.

Short but Troubling

Although the symptoms can be over in a few days, the experience of this disorder is usually overwhelming. The patient is terribly confused and emotionally upset by what is happening to her. The trauma is so severe it is often necessary to closely watch the patient so she doesn't harm herself. The suicide rate among this group is high, particularly among the young.