The psychosis prodrome is a phase seen in approximately 75% of people who later develop a schizophrenic spectrum disorder. Recognition of prodromal symptoms might help connect people to early treatment and prevention before psychosis ever occurs. Since schizophrenia most commonly emerges in late adolescence to young adulthood, people often dismiss an adolescent’s changing behavior as “teenage moodiness”. One may experience cognitive impairment, paranoid thoughts, social withdrawal, poor academic/work performance, subclinical psychotic symptoms, lack of concern with appearance, sleep disturbances, or personality changes. Researchers and mental health professionals are realizing the importance of detecting high-risk individuals so that they can begin treatment and be under the watch of a psychiatrist and loved ones if the prodromal phase evolves into psychosis.

My project is a pastel illustration surrounded by a collage of magazine images. The lone figure in the midst of a disorienting, subterranean descent represents the isolation and distress that one may feel as they don’t know what is happening to them. The images are of common hallucinations and delusions (government conspiracies, violent imagery, insects, being watched, hidden messages), as well as representations of what life might be like once psychosis has occurred (use of marijuana to self-medicate, daily anti-psychotic pills and unpleasant side effects like increased appetite). The pre-determined trajectory of the figure’s fall reflects how prodromal symptoms might be ignored until the most severe manifestation of the disease (hallucinations, disorganized speech, delusions) warrants concern.

 

 

References:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/articles/202305/mending-the-mind

https://www.verywellhealth.com/prodromal-schizophrenia-5194244