Psychosis in women: Consider midlife medical and psychological triggers

Very much along the lines of something we were discussing about hormone therapy for sz the other day.

Estrogen loss, other factors increase vulnerability for women after age 40
Current Psychiatry 2010 February;9(2):64-68, 75-76.

Psychosis is an emergent quality of structural and chemical changes in the brain. As such, it can be ex­pected to surface during:
• brain reorganization or transition (adolescence, senescence, brain trauma, stroke, starvation, inflammation, or brain tumor)
• change in brain chemistry (flux in go­nadal, thyroid, or adrenal hormone levels; electrolyte imbalance; fever; exposure to chemical substances; immune response).

Psychological stress impacting the brain via stress hormones also can predispose a person to psychosis.

See the entire article at…

http://www.currentpsychiatry.com/specialty-focus/bipolar-disorders/article/psychosis-in-women-consider-midlife-medical-and-psychological-triggers/8ff9989b28e263f20bbda5a389f64c47.html?

Wow, my midlife crisis is not in my thirties, but my twenties. (I don’t consider being psychotic to be living.) Plus, I’m single.