Stupor Depressions, widely known as Depressive Stupors, are common in the psychiatric world. There can be many reasons for their onset, such as medicine dosage, severe depression, and psychosomatic causes. Though they may be frightening, patients usually come out of them with no ill effects. The basic concern of families and hospitals is keeping the sufferer in a safe place. During the stupor the person may be conscious, unconscious, or in a sleep-like state, unable to be roused easily. Gross and fine motor skills, if any, are greatly decreased in the patient and every aspect of the body slows down.
Stupor Types
The psychiatric world recognizes two kinds of stupors: benign and malignant. Benign stupors occur abruptly and pass abruptly. The patient usually comes out of a benign stupor. On the other hand, malignant stupors are not guaranteed to simply stop, and they last for a greatly lengthened amount of time.
Medications
Stupors may be caused by conflicting medicines taken by the patient or by an overdose of one medication. Usually patients are on more than one drug at a time and not just a simple antidepressant. Most antidepressants cause drowsiness and impairment by themselves. If the patient is on a hypnotic, sedative, or tranquilizer in addition, then he may go into a stupor, unable to move, falling in and out of a deep sleep. The patient will have little response to outside stimuli and, if roused from the sleep-like stupor, he will immediately go back to that frozen state.
Psychosomatic Reasons
Psychosomatics is the study of the effect of the mind on the body. If a person becomes severely or clinically depressed, his motor skills will slow and he will move or talk slowly and isolate himself to one place, perhaps his bed, and stay there for several hours or a whole day. Major depression can put a halt to all activities, leaving the person numb to stimuli and emotion, simply existing in a state in which his mind is empty and his world is severely limited. In response to this grand-scale depression, the body will begin to shut down; the patient may cease taking food, talking, feeling emotion, or reacting physically to any outside stimulus.
New Events
New events in a person's life, even positive ones, can send a depressed person into a tailspin that marks the beginning a new strong and lengthy depression. This depression may produce a stupor-like state in which the person is isolated, hardly moves, and begins to talk and think very slowly. He will have no interest in activities or hobbies or in interacting with people but will simply remain frozen in his state for days or perhaps longer.
Conclusion
Since depressive stupors are benign and not malignant, the patient will eventually recover. From the standpoint of friends and family, this is good news. Aside from trying to provide patient support and comfort, there is little one can do to stop the stupor or rouse the person out of it. Eventually the person will come out of the troubled state and begin to slowly interact and take some interest in things again. If the condition seems to last too long, it is, of course, wise to consult a doctor or a therapist.
Tags: benign malignant, frozen state, motor skills, patient will, psychiatric world