Brief reactive psychosis
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Brief reactive psychosis (referred to in the DSM IV-TR as "brief psychotic disorder with marked stressor(s)) is the psychiatric term for psychosis which can be triggered by an extremely stressful event in the life of a patient. This 'stressful life event' can take many forms, including (but not limited to) the death of a loved one, professional loss such as unexpected redundancy or otherwise becoming unemployed, or serious adverse changes in the patient's personal life, such as the breakdown of their family through divorce, etc.
It must be stressed that this is by no means an exhaustive list of stressful life events, because the events which trigger brief reactive psychosis tend, due to the individualistic nature of human psychology, to be extremely personalized. BRP may be the first breakdown for someone with a chronic psychiatric disorder but only time will tell and even so they may still have a psychiatric disorder but the symptoms never reappear so the belief is that it really is BRP.
The condition usually resolves spontaneously within a timespan of weeks to months. A primary goal of treatment is to prevent patients from harming themselves or others during the episode.
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