Modern representations about differential diagnosis of schizophrenia-like psychosis disorders due to psychoactive substance use

Abstract

In recent years in the world there is a tendency of quantity of persons who use drugs increase. Free availability of drugs of different groups for population is the main cause. Another trend associated with the consumption of drugs. All these factors led to the increased frequency of psychosis occurrence among consumers of psychoactive substances. In structure of such psychosis there are a variety of symptoms and syndromes. And since the number of drug users is quite broad in its structure - there are also persons with mental illness. This gives number of diagnostic difficulties. In this regard, the aim of the study was to trace the modern ideas of differential diagnosis of schizophrenia-like psychosis disorders due to the drug use. Materials and methods of research. In this work the content analysis of the modern representations of differential diagnosis of schizophrenia-like psychosis disorders as a result of the use of psychoactive substances was made. The problem of determination of primary and secondary nature of drug addiction in patients with psychotic disorders was indicated. Etiology and psychopathogenesis hypotheses of the addiction from psychoactive substances in the context of their correlation with endogenous mental pathology were defined. In the literature there is no clear diagnostic criteria that would allow distinguishing psychosis due to the use of drugs and endogenous psychosis, which is combined with the admission medicines. However, the attention of clinicians should be concentrated on the premorbid condition: the presence of hereditary family history, pathological behavior in childhood and adolescence. It was found that the majority of substances may cause one or more syndromes - delirium, dementia, and amnestic syndrome, delusional syndrome, hallucinatory syndrome, depressive syndrome, anxiety, and personality disorder, such disorders as schizophrenia-like psychosis disorders are not rare. Special attention was paid to the hypothesis of self-medication (self-medication hypothesis, SMH). According to this hypothesis, drugs can be used by patients to relief their mental disorders, which the people started by other drugs intake. For this reason, it is difficult to detect real Genesis of psychosis in this case. Therefore, psychoses due to the use of medications should be differentiated from psychosis due to other endogenous diseases, for example, in schizophrenia. Conclusion about the importance and relevance of differential diagnosis of schizophrenia-like psychosis disorders of different Genesis for psychiatrists and narcologists was made.

Keywords

• Psychoactive Drugs
• Schizophrenia-form Disorders
• Differential Diagnosis