Psychotic depression
Overview
Some people who have severe depression may also experience hallucinations and delusional thinking, the symptoms of psychosis.
Symptoms
Someone with depression feels sad and hopeless for most of the day, practically every day, and has no interest in anything. Getting through the day feels almost impossible. Other typical symptoms of depression may include: fatigue (exhaustion)disturbed sleepchanges in appetitefeeling worthless and guiltybeing unable to concentrate or being indecisivethoughts of death orsuicide Doctors describe depression as mild, moderate or severe depending on your symptoms, how long it lasts and how much it affects your daily life. Read more about the psychological, physical and social symptoms of clinical depression Having moments of psychosis (when people lose some contact with reality) means experiencing: delusions – thoughts or beliefs that are unlikely to be truehallucinations– hearing and, in some cases, feeling, smelling, seeing or tasting things that are not there; hearing voices is a common hallucination The delusions and hallucinations almost always reflect the person's deeply depressed mood – for example, they may become convinced they're to blame for something, or that they've committed a crime. "Psychomotor agitation" is also common. This means not being able to relax or sit still, and constantly fidgeting. At the other extreme, a person with psychotic depression may have "psychomotor retardation", where both their thoughts and physical movements slow down. People with psychotic depression have an increased risk of thinking about suicide.
Causes
The cause of psychotic depression is not fully understood. It's known that there's no single cause of depression and it has many different triggers. Genes probably play a part, as severe depression can run in families. Life events and personal circumstances can be the cause for some people. This can includebereavement, relationship problems, financial problems, health problems and recent or past traumatic experiences. It's not known why some people with severe depression also develop psychosis. Read more about the causes of clinical depression