The symptoms of brief psychotic disorder resemble the delusions, hallucinations, or other psychotic symptoms of schizophrenia, but they last for a much shorter time (from 1 day to 1 month).
People with brief psychotic disorder have at least one of the following symptoms:
Delusions (false beliefs that people maintain against strong evidence)
Hallucinations
Disorganized speech
Very disorganized or catatonic (immobile or unresponsive) behavior
Doctors diagnose brief psychotic disorder if the person's symptoms last less than 1 month and another disorder does not better account for symptoms. Other disorders that can produce similar symptoms include adverse drug effects, medical problems such as a brain tumor or temporal lobe epilepsy, schizophrenia, and schizoaffective disorder.
Treatment of brief psychotic disorder is similar to treatment of schizophrenia and requires a doctor's supervision and sometimes short-term treatment with antipsychotic drugs.
Relapse is common, but people with brief psychotic disorder typically function well between episodes and have few or no symptoms.
