What is Steroid sycosis?

Question

And what is the long term damaged of having it?

Answer 1

Steroid Psychosis occurs as an adverse reaction to taking large doses of steroids the most common symptoms emotional lability, anxiety, distractibility, pressured speech, sensory flooding, insomnia, depression, perplexity, agitation, auditory and visual hallucinations, intermittent memory impairment, mutism, disturbances of body image, delusions, apathy and hypomania.

If Steroid use can't be stopped, there is treatment to counteract the side effects. The symptoms usually stop withing 2 weeks to seven months of discontinuing steroid use if there is no intervening treatment perscribed. Treatment with phenothiazines results in 55% recovering within 2 weeks and 90% in 6 weeks.

As for long term damage, about 7% of all people that develop steroid psychosis will have ongoing psychotic or depressive disorder or develop recurrent psychiatric symptoms.

The prognosis is best when early treatment (within 24 to 96 hours) with psychotropic medications and discontinuation of steroids where possible, produces rapid clearing and control of the steroid psychoses.

Answer 2

I think its steroid psychosis.. Am I right about that....

TIME OF ONSET

The time of onset of mental disturbances varies widely from patient to patient. The quickest onset was within the second day of corticosteroid treatment (Clark et al 1953). Although one patient was taking the drug for 95 days prior to symptoms (Clark et al 1952), most required a few days to one or two weeks before the symptoms appeared. Of 37 cases where time of onset of the psychosis could be determined for the corticosteroid, 62% of the psychiatric disturbances < 8 days). There are also cases where the patients were unaffected during previous courses but developed mental disturbances during the subsequent courses (Clark et al 1953). Thus, it is impossible to generalize about the time of onset. Moreover, dosage does not affect the time of onset.

Steroids and Psychiatric Disturbance

What Does Research Say?
Searching the relevant medical and psychological literature yields a number of case studies such as those referenced on page 1 of this article, which indicate that steroid use can spike instances of psychiatric disturbance. And while research has yet to reveal the definitive cause of these cases, some recent findings are beginning to shed light on this question. Wood et al (2004) report that in research with rats, chronic stress as well as administration of the stress hormone corticosterone causes physical changes in the organization of neurons in the hippocampus, a part of the brain. These changes are accompanied by behavioral changes.
There is currently no research that gives indication that steroids can actually cause long-term mental instability or illness.

Ingram and Hageman (2003) note, "A number of published reports describe the appearance of psychological symptoms with corticosteroid use. While the mechanism is unclear, the reaction is usually reversible with dose reduction or discontinuation of the corticosteroid. In cases where this cannot be done, typical treatment involves an antipsychotic medication." The research of Wood et al (2004) also indicates that some of the changes noted in the hippocampus can be prevented with "selective antidepressant and anticonvulsant drug treatments." These researchers explored the use of lithium in this role and found that the long-term treatment with lithium can protect the hippocampus as well. Continuation of this line of research in the future holds promise for better understanding both steroid-induced psychiatric effects and the mechanism behind the efficacy of drugs in the treatment of bipolar disorder.
References

Cortlandt Forum. (2001, December). Are bipolar patients at higher risk with steroids?

Ingram, D.G., &. Hagemann, T.M. (2003). Promethazine treatment of steroid-induced psychosis in a child. The Annals of Pharmacotherapy, 37, 1036-1039.

Markowitz, J.S., Carson, W.H., & Jackson, C.W. (1999). Possible dihydroepiandrosterone-induced mania. Biological Psychiatry, 45, 241-242.

PDR Medical Dictionary. (2000). Baltimore, Maryland: Lippincott Williams & Williams.

Perry, Paul, Ph.D, BCPP, & Brian C. Lund, Pharm.D. (Revised 2004). Steroid-Induced Mental Disturbances.

Wood, G.E., Young, L.T., Reagan, L.P., Chen, B., & McEwen, B.S. (2004, March). Stress-induced structural modeling in hippocampus: Prevention by lithium treatment. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the United States of American, 101, 3973-3978.