Recreational Drug-Induced Psychosis

Meraki · Apr 24, 2006

Hi Goodby5

I have worked on an adolescent inpatient unit for years and have seen quite a few drug induced psychotic breaks... the outcome varies. I have seen teens completely recover, often taking a good 4-6 months to be back to pre psychotic level of functioning. However others were probably predisposed to psychosis / schizophrenia which is why the drugs caused them to have the psychotic break...so while the initial break was drug induced and they may recover from it they end up with a psychiatric illness (bipolar, schizophrenia etc).

The treatment during the acute phase for the drug induced psychosis is usually to wait a few days to give the drugs time to clear the system and see if the psychosis will lift (we may give antipsychotics, ususally olanzapine for us, prn during that time depending on the level of agitation of the patient), then treat the psychosis with anti-psychotics as you have no idea at that time if it will be a short term or long term illness

Hope that helps

CharlieRN · Apr 25, 2006

Jecado is telling it like it is. Young adulthood is the time of onset for schizophrenia so if some one is wound up for that, then taking the drugs may put them over the edge.

If its any consolation, my guess is that anyone who ends up schizophrenic, would have sooner or later anyway. (Just checked with a passing psychiatrist, he agrees, but cautions that no numbers exist to confirm that.)

Goodby5 · Apr 28, 2006

Thanks jecado and CharlieRN for your thoughtful and informative response re: psychosis. Everyone still hoping for the best outcome.

karynfrances · May 5, 2006

the child really needs a lot of education about the whole episode and that if he continues to abuse drugs the likelihood of a good outcome steadily decreases.