How to get rid of mania. Delusions of grandeur in psychiatry Mania in psychiatry

Two weeks ago, as you remember, Temych and I rolled out a list of phobias that ‘cannot be used as a treatment for various phobias’, we also wrote about how to become a vampire in real life. There are a lot of letters, some pictures, photos and trackbacks. Here, in my bonus pack, there are much fewer spaces, there is only one external link, and indeed .. In general, as it happened, the uniqueness is available.

Ablutomania is the desire to wash hands. Always, everywhere, before everything and after everything. Damn, looks like it's mine.

Agromania is the desire to live alone in nature. Downshifting, therefore. It is treated with a seven-day stay in a tent with mosquitoes.

Idoyomania is an increased sex drive. Half of the asexuals are jealous, the other half wink derisively from their bachelor pad.

Aphrodisiomania - an obsessive search for drugs that increase potency. Well, yes, so that incidents do not happen.

Bibliomania is the passion for collecting books. Whether on the shelf or on hard - it doesn't matter. Another thing is interesting - these books are read or not.

Bruxomania is the grinding of teeth while awake. Anabiosis helps out again.

Geomania - attacks of eating the earth, omg. It is associated with imitating animals, schizophrenia and severe depression.

Homicidomania is the urge to kill. Kill 'em kindly bro.

Graphomania - the desire to write a lot. And an uncritical attitude to what was written.

Dacnomania - the desire to bite others. - How long have you realized, patient, that you are a dog? Yes, even when I was a puppy.

Demonomania is the delusion of introducing evil spirits into the patient or green devils there. Yes, the problem is in the greens, the devils are not like that.

Dermatomania - self-biting (intimate places?), pulling out hair (without wax) and nails (without analgesics).

Dipsomania - drunken drunkenness; this list is completely random.

Doromania is an obsessive desire to give gifts. Removed, as if by hand, after visiting the London «Louis Vuitton».

Dromomania - a passion for vagrancy, appears after the first departure from home. Mental trauma must be removed (dipsomania?).

Dupremifomania - Münghausen's disease, the patient believes what he says.

Klazomania - loud screaming and singing. It does not depend on the patient. For example: "Hey, striped rod!".

Kleptomania is an unmotivated desire to steal. Radically - cut off your hands. Or - loving - naltrexone.

Cleramboerotomania - the patient is sure that he is the object of love of a person who is higher than him in social status. Even chamomile is not needed, because 'I'm sure'.

Klinomania - couch potato, the same Oblomovism. Completely indistinguishable from some fears.

Ktinomania - the desire to torture, kill animals or watch the picture of their death. The reverse action should have an effect.

Megalomania (megalomania) - the patient imagines himself to be God, Gandalf or, for a change, a member of the royal family. CHSV, yes.

Mania is hilarious, iha-ha - high spirits for no (obvious) reason.

Angry mania - irritability, irascibility, captiousness. Do not rush to diagnose mothers-in-law and mothers-in-law (stereotypes, la la). The girls converge on the red days of the calendar.

Mania inhibited (akinetic) - inside everything is seething, and outwardly - terrible brakes, as if the poor P-II was forced to compress HD-video.

Mania oneiroid - daydreams and delirium. Not to be confused with lucid dreaming.

Resonant mania - verbal excitement, the patient pushes lengthy and fruitless speeches. Eyebrows are black-thick, speeches are long-empty .. Leonid Ilyich, he is the one.

Senile mania - all of the above in old age. Treated with youth, obviously.

Anxiety mania is a combination of psychomotor agitation with an anxious-depressive mood. If you are disturbed by alien mutants with knives, sneaking on your heels - this is already a persecution mania.

Drug addiction is an addiction to substances, you know. It is especially noticeable in the example of some of the habrazhites and commentators of Lebedev.

Necromania - love for corpses, but not necessarily sex with them (-philia). Someone doesn’t bury their loved ones either, m-yes ..

Nymphomania is a pathologically increased sexual desire in women. British scientists Psychiatrists are sure that such women do not really get full satisfaction from sexual intercourse.

Nostomania is the desire to return home. Never before has Stirlitz vomited so much at home ..

Oniomania is the compulsive urge to shop. Whores dream that the oniomania of the client is combined with the doromania: “lucky!”.

Onychotillomania - dermatomania only in relation to the nails. The patient seeks to damage them with whatever comes to hand: pruners help best of all.

Onomatomania is an obsessive attraction to remembering names-passwords-appearances and appearances-passwords-names. Probably provoked by exams.

Pyromania - we set fire, we look. Beautiful? The next banknote

Pornography mania - if pornography does not satisfy, hands are used - to write and draw exciting scenes on their own. Business.

Pseudo-dipsomania is a binge that breaks off when there is no money or drink.

Sitomania is gluttony. Do not climb, but want to; the buffet is banned, fast food is contraindicated. Rescues undercooked beans with seaweed.

Suicidemania is the persistent desire to commit suicide. For recovery, it is recommended to finish what you started.

Pharmacomania - the use of medicinal substances in by no means non-therapeutic doses. Do you have a prescription?

Chloroformomania - substance abuse associated with the abuse of chloroform in the form of inhalation or drinking. Boo-eh.

Erotographomania - graphomania in relation to love letters. Sometimes referred to as romance.

Megalomania- this is a type of behavior or self-consciousness of a person, expressed in an extreme degree of overestimation of his fame, importance, popularity, genius, political influence, wealth, power, up to omnipotence. Delusions of grandeur are synonyms - delusions of grandeur and megalomania, translated from Greek μεγαλο means exaggerated or very large, and μανία - madness, passion.

In everyday life, non-professional people often mistakenly use the term "megalomania", and understand it as an elevated, inadequate mood, marked by increased motor activity, accelerated speech and thinking. So mania is considered in psychiatry.

In modern psychiatry, megalomania is not classified as a separate mental disorder, but is considered as a manifestation of one of the mental disorders. For example, as an integral part of a manic syndrome or a symptom complex, in which delusions are possible when mania reaches a severe degree with psychotic symptoms.

What is delusions of grandeur? This condition in psychiatry is not considered as an independent disease, but as a symptom of another pathological condition that is associated with a mental disorder.

Delusions of grandeur often appear with paranoid disorders and an inferiority complex. Signs of megalomania are manifested in the fact that he concentrates all his thoughts on personal exclusivity and importance for society. As a result, all the conversations and actions of a sick person are aimed at alerting others about their own genius and uniqueness.

Causes of megalomania

The reasons lie in the symptoms of paranoid disorder or manic-depressive psychosis. Often such a state occurs with various, and affective. A similar disorder can manifest itself after a traumatic brain injury and a complication of progressive paralysis.

There are the following reasons for the development of this condition

• hereditary predisposition. If one of the parents has a similar disease, then it is most likely that it will also occur in the child;
• drug and alcohol addiction, syphilis;

Symptoms of megalomania

There are several stages in the development of this condition. The initial stage of formation is characterized by primary symptoms that are hardly noticeable to the surrounding people. Over time, there is a further progression of the megalomania syndrome, which leads to vivid clinical manifestations and to, as well as the development of dementia.

For such a state, the denial by the individual of the irrationality of his behavior is inherent. The patient is really sure that his judgments are the only true ones and all other personalities enthusiastically must agree with him. But not always the symptoms of megalomania manifest themselves with an accompanying delusional disorder and obsessive attempts to inspire others with their point of view. Often this disorder manifests itself with increased activity. This condition is inherent in, in which the phases alternate with episodes of mania. In the manic phase, the individual is completely confident in his own exclusivity, remains full of strength and energy, practically does not feel tired, he increases. A person in this state not only exalts his own ideas and thoughts, but also demands from those around him a similar attitude that elevates his personality.

The symptoms of this disorder are characterized by emotional instability, violent activity can be abruptly replaced by passivity, and a joyful mood by depression. These mood swings are, in most cases, impossible to control. Patients have a sharply negative attitude to any criticism. Sometimes the patient in his address ignores any comments, and it happens that he answers them and refuses to categorically accept someone else's opinion and help.

People with this mania are disturbed by sleep disturbances. Due to constant nervous excitement and increased activity, the symptoms of the disorder often include insomnia, anxious and superficial sleep. In severe cases, patients experience manifestations of depression, thoughts about and even attempts to commit suicide. Individuals often show marked exhaustion, both physical and mental.

Separately, it is necessary to consider the following variant of the course of the disease - severe depressive disorder with suicidal tendencies. There can be several reasons for the development of depression. If we are talking about a patient with bipolar disorder, then with such a disorder, mania is replaced by depression. This is a characteristic course of the disease. Often, severe depression can arise as a result of a person's loss of reason to consider himself the best. The moment of the collapse of ideas about personal exclusivity, as a rule, is extremely difficult for patients to endure. A depressed mood can appear as a result of physical and nervous exhaustion of the body.

Megalomania is often manifested not only by the perception of criticism, but also by the denial, as such, of someone else's point of view. Patients with a similar mental disorder often tend to commit absolutely irrational and dangerous acts, completely unresponsive and not listening to the advice of others and loved ones.

It should be noted that in women megalomania is found much less frequently than in men, and this disorder in the representatives of the male part of the population proceeds more aggressively. Often the matter is in trying to convey your ideas to the environment and convince them that you are right, it can come to physical violence.

In women, the disease often takes the form of erotomania and is much milder. Usually the fair sex is convinced that they are the object of someone's ardent love and passion. Their mania extends to the object known and public.

Often, individual types of these disorders include signs of various delusional states, which are classified in clinical practice into separate forms.

Megalomania in paraphrenic delusions has pronounced fantastic features and is often combined with depersonalization personality disorder and persecution mania. The clinical picture can be supplemented by the patient's pathological fantasies related to his uniqueness.

For example, the patient tells about his great deeds-fables, which often take quite fantastic forms. A person may claim that he must save the world, or that he is constantly being watched from space, and so on.

A megalomaniac may turn out to be a famous person, for example, in the case of the eminent mathematician John Nash, who turned down a prestigious academic post, citing the fact that he should be elevated to the throne of the emperor of Antarctica.

Less common is a type of delusional disorder that is accompanied by megalomania and is the so-called messianic delusion. A person in this state imagines himself to be Jesus or appears to be his follower. There have been cases in history when, with a similar disorder, individuals became famous and gathered followers of their own cult.

The greatest danger to the people around them is presented by patients who suffer from Manichaean delusional disorder. Megalomania in this case is expressed in the fact that the sick person imagines himself to be the defender of the world from the forces of good and evil. This is often seen in schizophrenia.

How to communicate with a person with delusions of grandeur? This question is of interest to relatives and the immediate environment. In dealing with such an individual, you should demonstrate your interest. It would be wise to show the person that their opinion is valued. Talking with the patient, you should devote enough time and attention to this conversation. At the end of the conversation, regardless of the personal relationship, you need to thank for the expressed thoughts. It would be right to demonstrate trust in such a person. If the patient sees that he is trusted, then this will be able to confirm his sense of self-worth and gain self-confidence, and the interlocutor to avoid aggressive behavior towards him.

Treatment of megalomania

A mental disorder with megalomania should be treated in a timely manner so that a depressive episode does not develop.

How to get rid of delusions of grandeur? This disorder is not completely cured, but the therapy of the underlying disease is very important, which is individually selected in each case and helps to slightly alleviate the symptoms that appear.

Depending on the cause that caused mania in a person, neuroleptics, tranquilizers, sedatives are prescribed, and specific psychotherapy is carried out.

Since the patient is not able to realize the seriousness of his condition, forced therapy may be required. With such a need, the patient is placed in a psychoneurological dispensary and already in a hospital, treatment is carried out.

Mania - translated from Greek - passion, attraction. This is a disorder of attraction, accompanied by an irresistible desire to perform some kind of action. A person is obsessed with the idea of ​​doing something. At this moment, he does not think about the consequences, he can harm himself and others. Having achieved his goal, he calms down for some period, then everything repeats again and again. The list of all the manias found in humans is quite large - 142 varieties.

Depending on the object of attraction, the following types are distinguished, presented in table 1.

Table 1. Types of mania

As can be seen from Table 1, manias are conventionally divided into 3 types:

Characteristics of mania

All manias have a common mechanism of action. A certain staging is characteristic:

1. Harbinger stage. Before an attack, a person feels strong excitement, does not find a place for himself, experiences an irresistible desire to perform this or that action (depending on the type of mania). He can not think of anything else, unable to do ordinary things, to fulfill his duties. Vegetative symptoms join - the pulse quickens, the person turns red, trembles all over the body, sweats, and blood pressure rises.
2. The stage of the action. During this period, the patient is insane, does not give an account of his deeds. Actions are impulsive, occur against his will, he is not able to interrupt them. The patient does not plan anything in advance, the process is chaotic and inconsistent. What is important is the fact of the actions, not their meaning. At the same time, the patient experiences an extraordinary “drive”, pleasure, a surge of energy. Having achieved the desired, he feels deep satisfaction, relief.
3. Awakening stage. At this stage, the patient, as it were, “wakes up” from a dream, an obsession. With horror, he discovers the consequences of his behavior, feels a sense of remorse, swears to himself and others that this will not happen again. Often falls into depression, which can end in suicide.

But after a while, the promises are forgotten, the attack is repeated again and again. Gradually, the interval between attacks is reduced, pathological actions are performed more often, last longer. In the absence of timely treatment, seizures entail serious complications with a threat to the life of the patient and others. Some types of mania can lead to the commission of unlawful acts by the patient and imprisonment.

Causes of mania

The causes of mania are manifold. Allocate biological, psychological factors, as well as additional reasons specific to adolescents.

Biological:

Psychological:

• prolonged stress;
• conflict situation, pressure at school, at work, at home;
• personal characteristics - emotional instability, lack of strong-willed qualities, hysterical traits.

Additional factors in adolescents:

• hormonal changes;
• communication with asocial elements;
• lack of impressions, boredom;
• the impression of films and books, the desire to experience it yourself.

Forms and varieties of mania

The clinical manifestations of mania are:

social mania

One of the most common in medical practice is the mania of cleanliness and order (ripophobia). The disorder is characterized by pathological cleaning of the house (continuous cleaning, cleaning, washing) and / or constant washing of hands, taking a shower. Gradually, washing hands from impulsive becomes a ritual obsessive action, the patient (more often these are women) cannot be torn away from this activity under any circumstances.

The procedure goes on for hours. This can happen during the arrival of guests (the hostess suddenly gets up, goes to the bathroom and disappears there for a long time), an important meeting. Over time, ripophobia can develop into paranoia, it seems to the patient that dirt accompanies her everywhere, disgust appears. The patient walks with gloves, does not eat outside the home, wears closed clothes even in summer. She terrorizes her household with demands to keep cleanliness, shows aggression.

Dermatillomania and trichotillomania are manifested by self-harm of the skin and scalp. An obsessive desire to harm oneself in any way leads to disastrous consequences. The patient has to resort to the help of a dermatologist, to do plastic surgery.

Oniomania (irresistible desire to buy) can end in ruin if not treated in time. A person buys everything, completely unnecessary things and products, without thinking about the consequences. The patient may lose his family if his spouse does not want to live in poverty.

Bibliomania (passion for reading), onomatomania (obsessive attraction to remembering names, dates, titles), melomania (passion for music), cuneiformia (desire to lie in bed), arithmomania (unhealthy passion for numbers), choriomania (pathological craving for dancing) - the most harmless kinds of manias. But continuous reading, dancing, listening to music, counting gradually exhaust the patient, bring him to physical exhaustion.

Timbromania (pathological passion for collecting stamps), pygmalionism (craving for sculptures, statues of women), hippomania (mad passion for horses) can lead to the commission of unlawful acts by the patient to an extreme degree. For the sake of obtaining a rare brand for the collection, a thoroughbred horse, an ancient sculpture, a maniac is able to steal, commit robbery and even commit murder.

Graphomania (pathological craving for writing) - a thunderstorm of editorial offices of magazines and newspapers! These people can drive editors to a nervous breakdown by demanding that they publish their "works".

Ergomans - pathological workaholics - a gift for the authorities. But for the patient himself, this is fraught with physical exhaustion and conflicts in the family (does not devote time to home).

Nymphomaniacs, zoomomaniacs, flagellomaniacs and erotomaniacs are obsessed with pathological sexual desire. The consequences can manifest themselves in venereal diseases, the breakup of families of patients, the loss of work, respect in society. The climax can be inflicting bodily harm or even killing the object of desire (if there are no reciprocal feelings).

antisocial mania

Antisocial mania is the most dangerous condition. Thus, homicidomaniacs suffering from a pathological desire to kill must be in a special closed hospital under the supervision of a psychiatrist.

Drug addicts, drug addicts must be registered in the narcological dispensary. In a state of narcotic or toxicological intoxication, they are able to harm both themselves and others. In search of a dose, they can go to theft, murder.

Kleptomaniacs, gamers, plutomaniacs who commit thefts and even murders (for the sake of obtaining funds for the next game during gambling or simply because of a pathological craving for money during plutomania) are also subject to vigilant observation.

The relatively harmless of this group are the dromomaniacs, who suffer from an unbridled urge to wander. But a long wandering can result in serious consequences both for the patient himself (infectious diseases in unsanitary conditions, physical exhaustion due to starvation), and for those around him (theft and murder by hungry patients).

Suicide mania is a condition that is dangerous for the patient himself. Such patients should also be constantly observed by a psychiatrist.

Mania accompanied by psychotic disorders

This group of manias occurs against the background of mental disorders - schizophrenia, psychosis, organic brain damage.

Delusions of grandeur (megalomania) and persecution occur within the framework of delirium in schizophrenia, in the manic stage of bipolar disorder, occurring with a psychotic component, against the background of brain intoxication.

A patient with megalomania thinks that he is the center of the universe, omnipotent. Behavior becomes corresponding to mania - he treats people arrogantly, exaggerates his capabilities, is in his fictional world. Delusions of grandeur to an extreme degree (paraphrenic, fantastic delusions) can bring a person to any crazy deeds.

With persecution mania, a person becomes suspicious, loses peace, enemies seem to him everywhere and everywhere. Under the influence of delirium, he is able to "revenge" his pursuers - to kill them. The patient is extremely malnourished and requires urgent hospitalization.

Patients with "Plyushkin's syndrome" like to collect rubbish, walk around yards, landfills with numerous bags. These are patients with organic brain damage suffering from dementia. Being in unsanitary conditions can provoke infectious diseases.

Pathological self-abasement (micromania) occurs against the background of the depressive stage of bipolar disorder, depression of another etiology. A patient obsessed with micromania is able to bring himself to suicide (guided by thoughts of his own worthlessness).

Necromania (tendency to desecrate corpses) and copromania (obsession with feces) are perversions inherent in patients with organic brain lesions (mental retardation, schizophrenia).

Conclusion

All patients with asocial mania and mania with a psychotic component are subject to vigilant observation and a narcologist. Basically, treatment should be carried out in a hospital.

Patients with social mania in an unopened form, it is enough to take a course of treatment on an outpatient basis and undergo psychotherapy.

Along with depression, mania is a fairly common mental illness in humans, and its clinical signs are well known, since manic patients are very different from other patients. As a mental illness, mania has been familiar to people since ancient times.

Ancient Greek healers were able to diagnose only the external signs of insanity, so their understanding of insanity refers precisely to manias, to which they ranked all types of insanity with noisy, loud and chaotic manifestations. In the Middle Ages, doctors considered this disease to be one of the subspecies of hysteria, since hysteroid patients also have noisy manifestations and attract everyone's attention. Today, psychiatrists clearly distinguish mania as a separate mental illness.

Characteristic

The word "mania" itself can be used either separately, denoting a mental illness, or be part of other words, denoting in this case a person's increased attraction to something. But at the heart of any kind of such a condition are always mental disorders. Synonyms for this word are passion, attraction and madness.

In psychiatry, mania is a mental disorder that is caused by psychomotor agitation, and sometimes even accompanied by a state of delirium or paranoia. Sometimes mania is one of the manifestations of schizophrenia, and obsessive-compulsive mental disorder often accompanies cleanliness mania.

In psychology, mania is a painful obsession with a particular object or phenomenon. This is an unhealthy state of mind, when a person is constantly haunted by obsessive thoughts about the object of his attraction. The danger of this condition lies in the fact that forgetting about peace and rest, the body wears out very quickly.

Causes and symptoms

What is this disease? Both mental and physical symptoms of mania arise from a pronounced excitation of the brain associated with the decay of one or more of its functions. It is characterized either by pathological gaiety or sadness with fits of rage or madness. This chronic disease of our brain is also usually manifested by an overexcitation of all the senses, as well as the will and thought processes. In this state, disorder of thought processes usually occurs, which provokes the emergence of delusional decisions.

Thus, this disease is characterized by constant excessive excitement of the emotional and mental spheres. The brain continuously splashes out memories, impressions, and also projects out a variety of actions and movements. All wide open - this is the formula of the classic manic patient.

Alternating mania and depression is a hallmark of bipolar disorder (formerly known as manic-depressive illness), but other causes of mania are possible. So, the mania of purity can be a manifestation of pedantic accentuation or occur in a person in a state of severe stress.

Forms

What are manias? Most often, this condition is diagnosed as a mental illness, which is manifested by a general excitation of the psyche, and sometimes can even be accompanied by delusions or hallucinations. There are three states of clinical mania: "subacute" or manic excitement, "simple" and "hyperacute with acute delirium." Simple mania is included in the group of psychoneuroses. According to the degree of manifestation, hypermania and hypomania are distinguished: severe and mild severity of this disease, respectively.

Another variety of this disease refers to "cerebropsychosis" - this is hyperacute mania (acute manic delirium). In such cases, the somatic manifestations of this disease are added to the manic excitement, which is due to an organic lesion of the brain. In such manic patients, consciousness is greatly clouded, and normal thoughts are completely replaced by delirium.

Sometimes there are cases of "erased mania". Such manifestations usually accompany other mental illnesses. In everyday life, mania can be called the usual excessive attraction to something or someone.

Varieties

What are manias? At the moment, more than 142 types of this mental disorder are officially known. Some of them are serious clinical diseases, while others are characteristic of a person's personality. They show us a wide range of unusual and strange things that a person can be obsessed with.

Here is a list of the most well-known varieties of this condition with their definition:

Persecutory delusions, better known as persecutory delusions, are considered a mental dysfunction in medicine and are classified as the main signs of insanity. At...

Many people often use the term persecution delusions when describing the actions of another person. The whole problem is that few people know what lies under it ...

Pyromania is a mental disorder characterized by an irresistible craving for arson. Pyromaniacs always set fires impulsively, without planning and...

Trichotillomania is a mental disorder that occurs most often against a background of stress and is characterized by a person's need to pull out their own hair, and ...

In clinical psychiatry, megalomania is defined as a form of psychopathological condition or one of the varieties of an affective syndrome in which a person has a false belief that he has outstanding qualities, is omnipotent and famous. Often obsessed with megalomania - in the complete absence of any objective reasons - he overestimates the importance and significance of his personality so much that he considers himself an unrecognized genius.

In addition, there may be illusions of having close relationships with famous people or fantasies about receiving a special message and a special mission from higher powers, the meaning of which no one understands ...

Epidemiology

According to international studies, megalomania in drug addiction and substance abuse occurs in 30% of cases, in patients with depression - in 21%.

With bipolar mental disorder, this pathology develops in patients under 20 years old in 75% of cases, equally in men and women, and in people 30 years and older (at the time of onset) - in 40%.

In addition, megalomania is much more likely to develop in people with a higher level of education, more emotional and prone to affectation.

Causes of megalomania

Psychiatrists admit that it is difficult to determine the specific causes of megalomania. Some consider this mental disorder an extreme degree of manifestation of the syndrome of narcissism; others associate it with bipolar affective disorders (in the stage of increased excitability) and argue that megalomania is most often a symptom of the paranoid type of schizophrenia.

Obviously, this is close to the truth, since almost half (49%) of people suffering from this form of schizophrenia are megalomaniacal. In addition, comorbidity (i.e., a combination of pathogenetically related diseases) of the syndrome of narcissism and bipolar disorder is noted: approximately 5% of patients with bipolar disorder have narcissistic personality disorder. In this case, both diseases potentiate each other, and then megalomania can be diagnosed (59%).

Among the main causes of megalomania are also distinguished:

Damage or anatomical abnormalities of the brain, in particular, its frontal lobe, amygdala, temporal lobe, or parietal cortex.

A genetically determined increase in the concentration of neurotransmitters or a change in the density of dopaminergic receptors in the brain. That is, the pathogenesis of mental pathology is associated with the fact that in some areas of the brain there is an excess of dopamine neurotransmitters with a simultaneous deficiency of its receptors, and this leads to overactivation or inadequate activation of a particular hemisphere (as studies have shown, most often, this is the left hemisphere). Among the causes of megalomania, 70-80% are genetic factors.

Neurodegenerative diseases (Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's disease, Parkinson's disease, Wilson's disease), although the percentage of patients who, with these diagnoses, may develop a mental disorder in the form of secondary megalomania, is relatively small.

Drug addiction, as narcotic substances cause drug-induced psychosis (very often with delusions of superiority and omnipotence).

The use of certain drugs. In particular, this applies to Levodopa (L-dopa) used to treat cognitive impairment in Parkinson's disease, the abolition of this drug changes the monoaminergic function of dopamine mediators.

Risk factors

Such psychological and emotional risk factors for the occurrence of this pathological state of the psyche are called, such as:

Severe depressive disorders (in which megalomania becomes a protective mechanism of the psyche);
- obsession with achieving the highest educational development and socio-economic status;
- long-term living alone, lack of family relations.

In addition, foreign psychiatrists associate risk factors for the development of secondary megalomania with vitamin B12 deficiency, thyrotoxicosis and carcinoid syndrome in the presence of neuroendocrine (catecholamine-producing) tumors.

Symptoms of megalomania

Some symptoms of megalomania were named at the very beginning of the publication. It remains to add that - in addition to the belief in their extraordinary abilities and deep knowledge - a person believes in his own invulnerability and believes that he does not need other people.

The first signs can manifest themselves in the form of a constant desire to be in the center of everyone's attention, a need for admiration, as well as recognition and assertion of one's superiority over others. That is, the ability to objective self-assessment disappears and emotional egocentrism begins to develop.

In most cases, megalomaniacs are pathologically boastful and behave in a pretentious and expansive manner. Their mood changes very often and for no reason, energy is replaced by irritability and outbursts of anger. There is a decrease in the need for sleep and rest, a violation of appetite (overeating or refusal of food), as well as tachypsychia - jumping from one thought to another, speeding up the pace of speech.

Conflicts with others are perceived by patients as the unwillingness of others to recognize the unique qualities of their own personality (existing only in the imagination of the patient). Some patients believe that they are kings, great generals or inventors, or direct descendants of celebrities. Compared to the narcissism syndrome, megalomaniac patients tend to be more active and aggressive.

stages

As the symptoms of megalomania progress, three stages of this psychopathological condition are distinguished:

Initial (its first signs were listed above);
-progressive stage (accompanied by auditory hallucinations and confabulation);
- stage of extreme severity - paranoid delusions of grandeur or psychosis with fantastic hallucinosis, attacks of aggressiveness, mental retardation.

Complications and consequences

Consequences and complications are associated with a violation of human behavior and its functioning in society. At the same time, according to most psychiatrists, patients suffering from megalomania have a lower risk of suicidal thoughts and attempts.

Diagnosis of megalomania

The main diagnosis of megalomania involves the identification of this pathology using a special Yang test, which was developed by a group of foreign psychiatrists.

In the so-called Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS) 11 questions with 5 possible answers are included.
Questions are about:
- mood level, physical activity and energy level;
- sexual interests;
- the duration and quality of sleep;
- degree of irritability;
- evaluation of speech, thought disorders and the content of the patient's conversations;
-explosive or aggressive behavior;
- features of appearance (neatness or negligence in clothes, etc.), as well as the degree of awareness of the presence of the disease or the complete denial of any changes in behavior (in most cases, such states are characterized by ego-syntonism, that is, the patient perceives his behavior from the point of view of his own standards).

The psychiatrist compares the test results (which, as practice has shown, has a fairly high level of false assessments) with the symptoms that the patient or (most often) his relatives complain about, as well as with those clinical signs that manifested themselves and were identified by the doctor during the conversation with the patient.

Differential Diagnosis

In psychiatry, differential diagnosis is very important, since both schizophrenia and bipolar afferent disorders are mental disorders with a loss of contact with reality and psychotic behavior. And you need to clearly define maladaptive personality traits in order to avoid misdiagnosis and find specific approaches needed for treatment.

Treatment of megalomania

Treatment of megalomania is carried out to improve the patient's condition, since it is impossible to cure this mental pathology.

Some patients may benefit from individual sessions of cognitive-behavioral therapy, which is aimed at correcting irrational thinking and inappropriate behavior. Others are more helped by interpersonal or interpersonal therapy, aimed at developing algorithms for resolving conflict situations in which the patient finds himself.

For circadian rhythm disorders associated with bipolar disorder, social rhythm therapy, a type of behavioral therapy, is used.

For patients suffering from a severe form of megalomania, psychotropic drugs are needed - neuroleptics and antipsychotics that stabilize the mental state.

Also in the treatment of this pathology, the patient's conscious adherence to all medical prescriptions (complex therapy) is of great importance.

The prognosis depends on the severity of the disease and the intensity of its manifestation. In any case, megalomania is a sign of abnormal, inadequate mental activity of a person.