ABSTRACT
People attempting to make a recovery from psychosis may experience associated psychological problems and difficulties such as anxiety, depression, substance abuse and personality problems. We use the term associated rather than the more conventional (and medical) co-morbid after Bermanzohn, Porto and Siris (1997), and with regard to the clinical difficulty in actually unravelling the chronology of psychological problems in people with psychosis. Social phobia, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression and other psychological difficulties can arise in a person affected by psychosis, and it may not always be helpful (or correct) to understand such phenomena as the inevitable sequelae of psychosis itself, and enjoying the status only of epiphenomena in terms of clinical foci. Such problems may precede psychotic episodes and may even be implicated in the development of psychosis through increasing personal vulnerability to psychotic experiences. For other people with psychosis, psychological problems may arise as a result of trying to make an adjustment to psychosis in the face of unhelpful and stigmatising beliefs held about psychotic illness and psychological problems. The process of psychiatric treatment itself, including (but not exclusive to) involuntary treatment, may be implicated in the development of psychological problems such as PTSD (Frame and Morrison, 2001; McGorry et al., 1991). Experience of psychosis may also lead to underlying psychological difficulties becoming more pronounced and disabling. Other problems may emerge as a consequence of short-term attempts to cope with psychotic phenomena including substance abuse and alcohol problems.
