Psychotic Outbreak in Depression

About one in four people admitted in a hospital with depression, are there because of psychotic outbreak.

What is psychotic outbreak, then?

Basically, this is a state where you detach from reality. A lot of the symptoms are very similar to schizophrenia - you can hear voices, have delusions of grandeur, say things that do not make sense, become totally antisocial, having difficulties communicating with other people, experiencing hallucinations and just plainly stop looking after yourself.

But there is one difference in the symptoms of psychotic depression from schizophrenia. If you are aware of your strange thoughts, hallucinations, behaviour or voices, schizophrenic is not.

This is partly one of the main reasons why it's so difficult to diagnose and treat this particular sever depression disorder. People are scared and ashamed of it, they think they are going mad and hide their condition.

Among other signs of psychotic depression there are anxiety and agitation, physical and mental impairment, insomnia, constipation and hypochondria.

The doctors don't know for certain what exactly causes psychotic outbreak, but it's thought be very high levels of hormone cortisol which accumulates an overwhelming amount of stress in your body.

Psychotic depression treatment usually is very successful and involves a combination of normal antidepressants and antipsychotics like Olanzapine (Zyprexa), Quetiapine (Seroquel), Risperidone (Risperdal), etc. Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is highly successful as well.

Usually people recover within a year, but they still require occasional check ups with mental health professionals. People with family mental health history and drug and alcohol abuse are more likely to suffer from a repeated outbreak.

There is also a very small study that researches a dramatic effect that Mifepristone - an emergency contraception pill has on people in psychosis.

Apparently, Mifepristone originally was made to block hormone cortisol, but because it could also block progesterone, it was turned into a "morning after" pill.

Now researchers say, that people who take the pill improve dramatically within days, and what's more important the effect lasts, which means that they can get better without suffering effects of psychosis for months or going through traumatic electroconvulsive therapy.

So, here it is - the wonders of modern medicine where medical professionals don't know what causes an illness and manufacture a pill for one thing, but it works perfectly well for a different one...

What do you think about it, guys? Please, share any information you have on the subject. It will be greatly appreciated.