symbiotic psychosis

psychosis /psy·cho·sis/ (si-ko´sis) pl. psycho´ses   any major mental disorder of organic or emotional origin marked by derangement of personality and loss of contact with reality, with delusions and hallucinations and often with incoherent speech, disorganized and agitated behavior, or illusions. Cf. neurosis.

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alcoholic psychoses  those associated with excessive use of alcohol and involving organic brain damage.

bipolar psychosis  see under disorder.

brief reactive psychosis  an episode of brief psychotic disorder that is a reaction to a recognizable, distressing life event.

Korsakoff's psychosis  see under syndrome.

senile psychosis  depressive or paranoid delusions or hallucinations or other mental disorders associated with degeneration of the brain in old age, as in senile dementia.

symbiotic psychosis , symbiotic infantile psychosis a condition seen in two- to four-year-old children having an abnormal relationship to the mothering figure, characterized by intense separation anxiety, severe regression, giving up of useful speech, and autism.

toxic psychosis  one due to the ingestion of toxic agents or to the presence of toxins within the body.

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symbiotic psychosis

Psychiatry A condition seen in young children with an abnormal relationship to a mother figure after a precipitating event–eg, birth of a sibling Clinical Intense separation anxiety, marked regression of social behavior and intellectual development, speech regression may occur and become garbled or jargonistic, leading to 2º autism, which may respond to therapy. See Folie à deux–shared psychotic delusion.