Brief psychotic disorder is a short-term disorder that lasts for a limited period of time. An individual with brief psychotic disorder must have experience at least one of the major symptoms of psychosis for less than a month such as hallucinations, delusions, lack of movement, strange behavior or peculiar speech.

Positive symptoms: The individual experiencing this disorder always has one or more positive psychotic symptoms such as the presence of a factor not expected normally or extreme form of normal behavior. These can range from delusions, hallucinations and bizarre movements to lack of movement, slurred speech or peculiar behavior.

Hallucinations: This may involve experiencing sensations that have no objective reality. They can be visual, audio, smell or audio-visual sensations even when the individual has proof and evidence contradicting the beliefs.

Other Psychotic Symptoms:

Strange bodily movements or lack of movement (Catatonic behavior): Catalepsy is the motionless state of catatonia in which a person may remain fixed to a spot for several hours. Repeated movements, frequent grimacing and weird facial expressions may also bee seen in individuals with a brief psychotic disorder.

Speech distortions: Slurred speech, mixing the words together or making strange conversation may also be part of brief psychotic episodes. Repeatedly saying a phrase or work is also experienced by many individuals during such episodes.

Strange Behavior: This can range from child like behaviors such as skipping, running or jumping to dropping food or mucking the hands.

Causes of brief psychotic disorder:

Early phase of Schizophrenia: Since there are several similarities between brief psychotic disorder and schizophrenia, many researchers and clinicians think that the former is an antecedent of the latter.

Stress Response: Temporary psychotic reactions can also appear under severe stress. The cause of stress can be the loss of a loved one, being taken hostage or encountering a natural disaster. Once the stress levels decrease, the individual returns to normal.

Defense mechanism: Individuals with personality disorders often develop brief psychotic reactions easily in response to stress. Those who lack this capability, have a difficult time in coping with life. When stress levels increase and situations cannot be handled, the person may be affected by a brief psychotic disorder.

Signs and symptoms of Brief psychotic disorder:

The individual should have at least one positive sign of psychosis such as hallucinations, delusions, slurred speech, bizarre behavior, lack or movement or strange behavior.

The psychotic symptoms need to have occurred for a day but less than a month.

The individual eventually returns to the normal level of behavior.

The symptoms are not biological and do not trigger another disorder.