What kind of psychoses might be associated with MS?

Psychosis is usually defined as a thought disorder where the individual loses contact with reality, at least temporarily. Very brief episodes may be due to seizures. Associated symptoms of psychosis usually include delusions and hallucinations. Isolated psychosis is rare in MS but can occur and is amenable to the usual treatments used to treat psychosis associated with psychiatric disease. It is always most important to exclude a drug induced psychosis, particularly street drugs.

Psychotic behavior may be associated with bipolar disorder which in turn may occur more often in people with MS than in people without MS. Similarities between bipolar disorder and MS include age of onset, fluctuating nature of symptoms and white matter abnormalities, especially in the temporal lobes.  As with all psychiatric symptoms in MS it is important to exclude drug effects. For instance manic behavior is fairly common with steroid treatments.

Rip Kinkel

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