Substance-induced psychosis can add a variety of new challenges when you are working with a patient in addiction recovery. Being aware of the potential onset and understanding how to best manage this disorder can ease the stress of recovery for your client and yourself.
What Is Substance-Induced Psychosis?
Psychosis is a disorder that forms delusions, hallucinations, and disruptive thought processes. Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are two common forms of psychosis.
Substance-induced psychosis refers to psychosis that had the onset of its symptoms from substance use disorder (SUD). While psychosis and SUD have different mental and physical effects, there is a correlation between the two disorders.
Having both of these disorders present means you are dealing with a dual diagnosis. Understanding the criteria that are required to be diagnosed with substance-induced psychosis can help you understand how these issues originate and how to best help clients recover.
Diagnosis of Substance-Induced Psychosis
To diagnose substance-induced psychosis, you need to understand when the symptoms of psychosis are present. The time frame that the symptoms of psychosis occur after the use of a substance can help you determine if the two are correlated.
To determine if psychosis is substance-induced, consider whether the following statements apply. If they do, the psychosis is likely not substance-induced and may be classified as primary psychosis instead.
- Symptoms are substantially excessed of what would be expected from the amount or duration of substance use
- Having a history of episodes not related to substance use
- Symptom onset precedes substance use onset
- Symptoms continue for a substantial period after the cessation of intoxication or acute withdrawal
The Onset of Substance-Induced Psychosis
Some reactions that occur in the body increase the potential of substance-induced psychosis occurring. Heightened levels of dopamine can lead to symptoms of psychosis occurring and remaining persistent after abusing substances. Through our brain’s reward circuit, our levels of dopamine are increased with the use of substances, rewarding the brain for its behavior. This is what causes addiction to set into place.
With addiction, the body convinces itself that it needs this substance to survive. Many aspects of addiction change the way we think and the way our brain’s chemistry works. These changes can lead to delusions and hallucinations. The regular use of these substances can cause psychosis to arise, strengthening the intensity of the addiction.
Individuals who abuse methamphetamines are the most prone to develop substance-induced psychosis. The abuse of alcohol is also commonly associated with this form of psychosis. Approximately 55% of individuals with schizophrenia find that their symptoms are worsened because they also are struggling with SUD.
Helping Clients
Working as a mental health professional and helping clients who struggle with substance-induced psychosis can be overwhelming. Working with individuals to get through the process of addiction recovery is challenging on its own. When the treatment process needs to address psychosis as well, extra stress can be experienced, but neglecting your client’s psychosis can be very detrimental to their recovery.
Guided Questions
Using the following tactics to improve your observations of your client’s condition can help you determine which aspects of psychosis are related to substance abuse and how to best treat this individual.
- Frame the problem of co-occurring schizophrenia and addiction from both clinical and systems-level perspectives
- Identify both effective and problematic psychosocial, pharmacological, and systems practices with the client
Observing the different aspects of both substance abuse and psychosis can help you determine the main focal points in each area. When you understand the individual’s specific struggles, you can better isolate the strategies to use in recovery to lead your client to success. Viewing which methods have previously benefited the client can help you decide which aspects to continue using in their recovery.
Managing Emotions
Clients who are struggling with substance-induced psychosis tend to have heightened emotions and struggle to understand the mental disorders they are dealing with. It may take a great level of patience to explain this matter to your clients. Helping your clients learn skills in emotional regulation can enable them to ground themselves during episodes of psychosis. This can be extremely important to focus on to keep the individual on track with their addiction recovery and not allow the psychosis to take over their treatment progress.
Coordinated Specialty Care
Coordinated specialty care is a form of treatment that focuses on evidence-based practices. This is often used to treat clients who are having initial symptoms of psychosis and are working to retract these traits before they set in too deeply. Working with your client and their support group, this treatment approach focuses on individualizing a plan for the individual to reset these symptoms of psychosis while continuing to focus on addiction recovery.
Substance-induced psychosis occurs when the effects of SUD lead an individual to experience symptoms of psychosis. Understanding the onset of this disorder and how to best help your clients through the process of recovery when they are experiencing this can be extremely helpful. Substance-induced psychosis is diagnosed by observing aspects of SUD as well as psychosis. The combination of these symptoms and the relationship between them can help you determine if an individual is struggling with this disorder. Working to alleviate the symptoms of psychosis early on can make the process of recovery easier. Helping your clients manage their emotions and improve their emotional regulation skills can greatly help them overcome this obstacle. There are many strategies to implement into the treatment plans of these individuals to help them succeed in recovery. To learn more, reach out to Dream Recovery at (949) 732-1960.