We live in a society that leads a frenetic pace of life. We pay attention to all the stimuli that are around us, we must make decisions quickly and constantly, perform numerous tasks and combine a large number of activities. All of this requires a general activation of our body and the implementation of resources that allow us to meet all the demands of our daily lives.
Sometimes, our thinking is accelerated to respond to all these circumstances. However, this thought can appear abnormally accelerated in some disorders, which is known as tachypsychia. In this Psychology-Online article, we talk to you about tachypsychia: what it is, symptoms, causes and treatment.
What is tachypsychia
What does tachypsychia mean? It can be understood through two different definitions. We see them below.
Tachypsychia as perception of the passage of time
The American Psychiatric Association defines tachypsychia as an altered perception of time in which time appears to go more or less quickly.
This term is linked to the concept of psychological time, which is the subjective estimate of time. This estimate will be conditioned by internal factors, for example, we perceive that time passes more slowly when we are bored or it passes faster when we are having fun, or by external factors, for example, if we are exposed to unpleasant stimuli we will perceive that time passes more. slowly.
Furthermore, this perception of time can be altered by the effects of some substances. With all this, this definition of tachypsychia does not indicate that the term is pathological. In this case, it would be a non-pathological distortion of time perception in most cases and pathological if it was caused by the effect of some substance.
Tachypsychia as a thought disorder
The concept tachypsychia in psychology is also used to describe a formal disorder or the course of thought. In this sense, tachypsychia would refer to a abnormal acceleration of thought. The opposite extreme would be represented by bradypsychia or slowing of thinking.
Maybe you can think that in some disorders, such as anxiety disorders, people think about the same thing a lot, they don’t stop thinking and their heads are like a pressure cooker. This concept refers to rumination, which is different from thought acceleration or tachypsychia.
Symptoms of tachypsychia
Accelerated thinking or tachypsychia is not a diagnostic category. It is not a syndrome made up of a series of symptoms. On the contrary, this phenomenon is a symptom in itself which may be present in disorders such as the following:
- : specifically, tachypsychia would be one of the symptoms of manic, hypomanic and depressive episodes with mixed characteristics.
- Psychotic disorders as .
The abnormal acceleration of thought is manifested through language through the “flight of ideas.” There are publications that also take the flight of ideas as an extreme form of thought acceleration characterized by:
- accelerated speech in which many words appear in a very short time.
- Disconnected ideas each other.
- Jumps impulsively from one topic to another.
- Distractibility.
- In serious cases, the speech is incoherent and disorganized.
Causes of tachypsychia
Tachypsychia is a symptom of some disorders. One of them, perhaps the one with which it has been most related, is bipolar disorder. In this context, the acceleration of thought occurs as a consequence of the abnormally elevated mood.
The flight of ideas is also found in psychotic disorders, such as schizophrenia, in which thinking is altered in its form and content. That is, there is a alteration in the way of thinkingfor example, very quickly, and what you think about, For example, . These would be some examples of tachypsychia.
Schizophrenia has numerous explanatory theories of a biopsychosocial nature that try to explain the causes of its alterations.
Treatment of tachypsychia
We have discussed the two main disorders in which this acceleration of thinking appears, bipolar disorders and psychotic disorders. For treatment, therefore, we must take into account the disorder in which this accelerated thinking is appearing.
Considering tachypsychia as a symptom of both, below, we will review the treatment for both groups of disorders, considering that this treatment will have an effect on said symptom.
Antipsychotic drugs
Antipsychotic medication is used in both groups. The treatment of tachypsychia, in the case of , is used mainly in the manic and hypomanic phases. Remember that accelerated thinking appears in these. One of the antipsychotics used for schizophrenia is and, in the case of bipolar disorder, one of the ones used is .
Mood stabilizers
As we have seen previously, one cause that can lead to accelerated thinking is abnormally elevated mood. Therefore, treatment with mood stabilizers such as lithium or valproic acid should lead to improvement in racing thinking.
Psychological therapy
In the case of bipolar disorder, psychoeducation is used and it will act, among other elements, on manic impulses.
In the case of psychotic disorders, the following psychological therapies are used:
- Deactivation techniquesexposure, operant methods, cognitive therapies and self-control and biofeedback strategies.
- Neuropsychological rehabilitation: For example, in the case of accelerated thinking, they can operate on attention to reduce distractions.
- Other components such as training in troubleshooting, etc.
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 Tachypsychia: what it is, symptoms, causes and treatmentwe recommend that you enter our category.
Bibliography
- Godoy, JF, Godoy-Izquierdo, D. and Vázquez, ML (2014). Schizophrenia spectrum and other psychotic disorders. En Caballo, VE, Salazar, IC and Carrobles, JA Manual of Psychopathology and Psychological Disorders. Madrid. Pyramid.
- Gómez-Fontanil, Y. and Coto, E. (2008). Psychopathology of thought (I): formal thought disorders. In Belloch, A., Sandín, B. and Ramos, F. (2008) Manual of psychopathology. Volume I. Madrid: McGraw-Hill.
- Ramos, F. and Manga, D. (2008). Psychopathology of language. In Belloch, A., Sandín, B. and Ramos, F. (2008) Manual of psychopathology. Volume I. Madrid: McGraw-Hill.
- Sevillá, J., Pastor, C. and Ruiz, L. (2014). Bipolar disorder and related disorders. En Caballo, VE, Salazar, IC and Carrobles, JA (2014) Manual of Psychopathology and Psychological Disorders. Madrid. Pyramid.