PERCEPTION AND HEALTH

PERCEPTION AND HEALTH

By

Prof.M. Thanga Darwin

                Perception determine health status of individual and society.  perceptual abnormalities have been affected health and causes diseases. For example, perceptual disorders lead to determine health.

Physical health: perceptual abnormalities and perceptual disorders causes physical illness such as cardiovascular diseases and neuron endocrinal problems etc.

Mental health: perceptual anomalies and perceptual disorders causes mental illness such as stress, depression and schizophrenia etc.

Social wellbeing: Perceptual abnormalities and   perceptual disorders casus relationship problems, social disability etc.

Perceptual Disorders

              Disorders characterized by an impaired ability to perceive the nature of objects or concepts through use of the sense organs. These include spatial neglect syndromes, where an individual does not attend.

Types

a. Auditory Perceptual Disorders: Acquired or developmental cognitive disorders of auditory perception characterized by a reduced ability to perceive information contained in auditory stimuli.

b. Hallucinogen persisting perception disorder (HPPD): is a disorder characterized by a continual presence of sensory disturbances, most commonly visual, that are reminiscent of those generated by the use of hallucinogenic substances. Many of the characteristics of this disorder can be mistaken for anxiety or panic related disorders by physicians. Previous use of hallucinogens by the person is necessary, but not sufficient, for diagnosis of HPPD. For an individual to be diagnosed with HPPD, the symptoms cannot be due to another medical condition.

Perception Abnormalities

Sensory Distortion:  Constant real perceptual object which is perceived in a distorted.

Changes in Intensity:  Increased intensity of sensation- hyperesthesia seen in increasing sensations or lowering of physiological threshold.

Increased sensitivity to noise: Hyperacusis decreased sensitivity to noise – hyperacusis delirious depression attention deficit disorder.

Change in perceived shape: of an object Retinal disease, Disorders of accommodation, Temporal and Parietal Lobe Lesions, Poisoning with atropine and hyoscine schizophrenia.

Micropsia:  A visual disorder in which the patient sees objects smaller than they really are farther away than they really are macropsia – opposite to micropsia.

Macropsia: Scarring of retina with retraction and complete paralysis of accommodation. Dysmegalopsia: Objects are perceived larger in one side and smaller in the other. Atropine, Hyoscine poisoning Chronic arachnoiditis

Metamorphosia: Irregular in shape.

Psychopathological point of view Physical: Determined by physical events Personal- Personal judgement of passage of time Mania- Time passes quickly Depression- Time passes slowly Acute Schizophrenia- personal time goes in fits and starts Acute organic states (temporal disorientation) disorders of time is seen in milder form there may be over estimation of time.

Illusions: Misinterpretation of a single stimuli arising from a single stimulus Stimuli from a perceived object are combined with a mental image to produce a false perception. Derived from set and lack of perceptual clarity, delirium, severe depression with delusions of guilt.

Hypnotic hallucinations: Normal subjects can be made to hallucinate Hypnotic hallucinations do not produce objective effects similar to those produced by ordinary perceptions such as complimentary after images and so on.

Hallucinatory voices: may be heard in ear disease Visual hallucination is seen in eye diseases but usually there is disorder of the CNS as well.  Peripheral lesions of sense organs may play a part in hallucinations in organic states. If all incoming stimuli are related to minimum in a normal subject they will begin to hallucinate after few hours Usually these are changing visual hallucinations and repetitive phrases.

Black Patch Disease:  delirium following cataract extraction in the aged result of sensory deprivation and mild senile brain changes.