Surely you have heard the expression many times: “you are delirious.” But what does this really mean? This expression is used to highlight that someone is saying or doing nonsense or nonsense, but in clinical terms, what we really mean when we talk about delirium is something else.
Reference delusion is one of the many types of delusion we know, so, to understand it, keep reading and in this Psychology-Online article. We’ll see What it is, the symptoms, causes and treatment of reference delirium.
What is reference delusion
A per se is any false and incorrigible belief that is not in line with the social and cultural origin of the subject. It is established by a pathological route and constitutes the main axis of the patient’s life, dominating his thoughts, but also his mood and behavior. According to K. Jaspers, delirium has 3 main characteristics:
- Extraordinary conviction.
- It does not influence experience or empirical evidence.
- Impossibility in its content (falsehood).
He reference delusion Specifically, also known as self-referential delusion, it is considered one that makes a incorrect interpretation of causal incidents and external events as referring directly to oneself to an intense degree. Without this degree of intensity, we would be talking about reference ideas. In other words, it is the false belief that the events, objects of other people’s behavior and other perceptions (generally of a negative nature) that the patient perceives are related to their person.
Delusions are generally a symptom of other disorders that may or may not be psychotic. In any case, this can develop a disorder in itself, called .
Clinical manifestations or symptoms of baseline delirium
The different ones, including reference delirium, show common manifestations among them:
- Hallucinations related to delusional themes
- Absence of other psychotic symptoms
- Affective state in line with the delusional theme
- Absence of illness judgment
- Other areas of functioning affected depending on the content of the delirium
- No significant deterioration in psychosocial activity
In the specific case of the reference delirium, they would be those discussed above, taking into account that The delusional theme to which he will refer will be the erroneous personal attribution to the person himself.
Like other types of delirium, its course is chronic: it goes from suspicion to delirious creation, and its consolidation into a delirium.
It is important to keep in mind that, in people with this alteration, any behavior will be integrated within the context of the delusional theme.
The prevalence of baseline delirium varies between 0.03 and 1%, with a female predominance. Other things to keep in mind about delusions, and something that helps us differentiate it from other disorders on the psychotic spectrum, is its late appearance. Normally from 40 years old.
Causes of reference delirium
There is no clear cause, although we know that mental health illnesses are a result of interaction of genetics and environment with an average ratio of 60-40% in which the greater weight of the environment or genetics will depend on each specific case, without being able to make a clear determination.
It is true that even without being able to make a rigorous association, there are factors, considered risk, that could help us. These are the use of drugs and psychotic substances, history of previous delusional episodes, family history of psychotic disorders or other pathologiess like:
Treatment of reference delirium
When delirium is a consequence of another medical disorder or illness, the primary treatment will be alleviate the main cause which has delirium as a symptom. For example, if a person suffers from delusions as a symptom of schizophrenia, the primary treatment will be that of schizophrenia.
First of all, we must keep in mind that delirium is difficult to treat, and It is usually treated with psychotropic drugsusually antipsychotics. Even so, it has been shown that one of the therapies that works best is , so, if we want to treat the reference delirium specifically and in isolation, the therapy for it will be based on cognitive restructuring and confrontation in order to increase the person’s capacity for rational judgment towards himself and trying to dismantle the construction he has made around the delusional idea.
Other types of delirium
This article is merely informative, at Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
If you want to read more articles similar to Reference delirium: what it is, symptoms, causes and treatmentwe recommend that you enter our category.
Bibliography
- American psychiatric association, (2014). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders DSM – 5. Madrid Spain. Pan-American medical publishing house.
- Belloch, A., Sandín, B., Ramos, F., (2009). Manual of psychopathology, volume II. Madrid. McGraw Hill / Interamericana de España, SAU
- Carlson, N. R. (2014). Behavioral physiology. Madrid. Pearson Education, S.A.