Menstrual psychosis

Menstrual psychosis is a term describing psychosis with a brief, sudden onset related to the menstrual cycle, often in the late luteal phase just before menstruation. The symptoms associated to it are dramatic and may include delirium, mania or mutism. Most psychiatrists do not recognise the syndrome as a distinct condition. Menstrual psychosis is a term describing psychosis with a brief, sudden onset related to the menstrual cycle, often in the late luteal phase just before menstruation. The symptoms associated to it are dramatic and may include delirium, mania or mutism. Most psychiatrists do not recognise the syndrome as a distinct condition. Premenstrual exacerbation is the triggering or worsening of otherwise defined conditions during the late luteal phase of the menstrual cycle. Symptoms can include psychosis. An estimated 40% of women who seek treatment for premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) are found to not have PMDD, but rather a premenstrual exacerbation of an underlying mood disorder, such as bipolar disorder. There are numerous sex differences in schizophrenia, a condition in which women's menstrual cycles can greatly affect the level of psychotic symptoms. Cycloid psychosis is psychosis that occurs for a short period, disappears, then reappears on a cyclic basis. It is mainly found in women. Brief psychotic disorder is psychosis that occurs for a length of a week or less at a time, and that cannot be explained by other defined conditions. It occurs twice as often in women than men, and even more often in women in the United States. In one well documented Turkish case, someone initially diagnosed with this disorder was found to be best described as having a 'premenstrual psychotic disorder'. The distinct condition 'menstrual psychosis' may affect about 1/10,000 women. As of 2005, only 80 established cases of 'menstrual psychosis' were reported in medical literature and most of them were described by 19th century physicians. However, an estimated 1-3% of women of reproductive age have premenstrual exacerbation of an underlying mood disorder. As defined by Ian Brockington, 'menstrual psychosis' is a rare form of severe mental illness, with the following characteristics: It shares clinical features with, and presents similarly to, postpartum psychosis. Researchers Deuchar and Brockington proposed that a sudden drop in levels of estrogen in the brain could be the trigger for both conditions. Others have found a similar connection. In most, the clinical picture is within the bipolar spectrum, but a few have cycloid or catatonic features. A minority have an organic cause, and there may be a variant associated with learning disability. About one-third have onset in the mid-cycle and two-thirds in the late luteal phase.