Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) With Psychotic Features

This is a diagnosis that I often receive questions about. It can be confusing, how do we know if the person has schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, or bipolar disorder with psychotic features? 

They all have psychotic symptoms such as delusions and hallucinations.

In this video I’m going to explain how we navigate this diagnostic dilemma. 

For one to be diagnosed with MDD with psychotic features they must meet criteria for major depressive disorder based on the DSM-5TR. 

As a reminder, to meet criteria the person must have 5 out of 9 symptoms within a two-week period and at least one symptom must be either depressed mood or loss of interest. 

In medical school they teach you the mnemonic SIGECAPS, an interesting fact is this is written the way you would fill out a paper prescription for depression. SIG Energy Capsules which you would give to a person with major depression because of the low energy and loss of interest commonly seen in major depression. 

Anyway…

The other criteria include 

-Weight loss or weight gain 

-Insomnia or hypersomnia 

-Psychomotor agitation or retardation 

-Fatigue or loss of energy 

-Feelings of worthlessness or guilt 

-Poor concentration 

-Recurrent thoughts of death or suicidal ideation 

So, we have a person who meets criteria for MDD, they have 5 out of 9 symptoms for a two-week period. 

We should keep in mind it’s important that the person has also suffered some loss of function in their personal or professional life because of the symptoms. This is what makes it a disorder. 

Now, what if the person also has a loss of reality-based thinking in conjunction with the major depressive episode?

This will include things like delusions and hallucinations. The delusions can be persecutory in nature or paranoid, but other types may occur too. The persecutory delusions are ones where the person feels attacked or victimized by others. They may even believe people are coming into their home to harm them. This usually presents with the patient reporting things being moved in the home or things being out of place. A common paranoid delusion is one where the person believes they are being followed. This usually presents as a car or person the patient keeps seeing, and they cannot believe that it may just be a coincidence, or someone who travels the same route to work every day.

Delusions are fixed false beliefs, and although there may be rational explanations for the things going on around them, this is the patient’s reality, and you must be careful when challenging it. The belief is fixed, and That is why presenting evidence contrary to the belief is not effective.  

The important point here is the psychotic symptoms are only present during the major depressive episode. Treat the depression and the psychotic symptoms resolve. If the psychotic symptoms remain after the major depressive episode is successfully treated, you need to reevaluate the diagnosis.

This is what separates MDD with psychotic features from schizophrenia. 

In bipolar disorder with psychotic features, the psychosis often occurs in the manic phase of the illness and has a grandiose theme associated with it. The patient my for example believe they are a prominent religious figure, or the government is plotting against them. 

We often call the delusions in depressive episodes mood congruent, meaning they are consistent with how the person is feeling. It’s not a far stretch for a person who is severally depressed to feel like people want to harm them. 

Treatment

Treatment is well established and consists of an SSRI or other antidepressant medication in combination with a dopamine blocking medication. The other option is electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) when the person is severally depressed not eating, attending to ADLs, or at risk for suicide. 

Patients should remain on medication for at least 6 months after complete resolution of symptoms. This is very important as relapse has been proven to occur when medication is stopped prior to that time. People can taper off the dopamine blocking medication after 6 months as these tend to have worse side effect profiles. The SSRI should be continued for 1 year at which time you can attempt to taper off or reach a lowest effective dose if symptoms begin to reappear. An index phase of ECT should be completed if that is the treatment of choice which consists of 12 total sessions done either 2 or 3 times per week.