Psychotic Arousal and the Psychopathology of Acute Schizophrenia. An Exploratory Study of the Experiential Emotional State in Acute Psychosis
Preprints.org August 7, 2024 Maria Margariti, Ilias I. Vlachos, Dimitra Mpourazana et al. 1 citation preprint
Psychotic arousal is a proposed emotional state during acute psychosis, characterized by abnormal experiential feelings. A new scale, the Psychotic Arousal Scale (PAS), was tested in 55 patients with acute schizophrenia. The scale showed good internal reliability and correlated with measures of delusion conviction, anxiety, and depression. Psychotic arousal decreased with antipsychotic treatment in the first weeks. The findings suggest that emotional arousal with abnormal feelings is present in acute psychosis but often overlooked.