Nightmares and Psychotic Decompensation: A Case Study
Ross Levin, Rebecca Stiritz Daly
Psychiatry August 1, 1998 DOI: 10.1080/00332747.1998.11024833 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Case study Case report Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 1 |
| Population | A 40-year-old female with chronic paranoid schizophrenia |
| Topics | Dreaming |
| Citations | 22 |
| Key findings | In this case, two witnessed psychotic relapses were immediately preceded by intense, vivid nightmares whose content was thematically consistent with the patient's waking hallucinations. The authors propose that nightmares may be a prelude to psychotic decompensation and that further systematic study of dreams and nightmares in schizophrenia could aid understanding of the condition's phenomenological experience. |
Abstract
There have been numerous reports in the literature on the descriptive similarities between a severe nightmare and an acute psychotic episode. Nightmares may be a prelude to psychotic decompensation, and it has been suggested that frequent lifelong nightmares may even be diagnostic of an underlying vulnerability to psychosis. In this report, we present a case study of a 40-year old female experiencing chronic paranoid schizophrenia, whose two witnessed psychotic relapses in the hospital were immediately preceded by intense and vivid nightmare attacks. Significantly, the content of these nocturnal dreams was thematically consistent with her waking hallucinations, suggesting a direct continuity between these experiences. We propose that further systematic study of the dreams and nightmares of individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia may be particularly useful in understanding their phenomenological experience.
Comparable studies
Other case reports and case series on dreaming, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lucid Dreaming as a Learnable Skill: A Case Study The author | 1980 | Case study | n = 1 |
| Lucid Dreaming as a Treatment for Recurrent Nightmares People with recurrent nightmares | 2010 | Case study | n = 5 |
| Treating Chronic Nightmares of Sexual Assault Survivors with an Intellectual Disability – Two Descriptive Case Studies Adults with learning disabilities suffering from post-traumatic nightmares | 2006 | Case study | n = 2 |
| Lucid dreaming: Correspondence between dreamed and actual events in one subject during rem sleep A lucid dreamer | 1984 | Case study | n = 1 |
| Lucid dreaming treatment for nightmares: A series of cases. Participants with nightmares | 2003 | Case series | n = 8 |
Citations in the library
Cited by 5
- Nightmare Prevalence, Nightmare Distress, and Self-Reported Psychological Disturbance Sleep 2002
- Sleep, Nightmares and Schizophrenia Journal of Sleep Disorders and Management November 3, 2017
- Oneiric activity in schizophrenia: textual analysis of dream reports. Consciousness and Cognition May 15, 2010
- Dream content in chronically-treated persons with schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research July 1, 2009
- Nightmares and schizotypy. Psychiatry 1998