Psychopathology: Disorders of Perception

Detection and response to stimuli is the ability of every living being. When this process is interfered, we talk about sensory impairment. There is a wide range of possible causes of sensory disturbances. In this article we mainly focus on sensory impairment caused by mental disorders. In doing so, we divide disorders of perception into elementary perceptual impairment, sensory abnormalities, illusions, depersonalization, derealization, and hallucinations. These disorders were analyzed in relation to the sensory apparatus to which they relate. Descriptions of clinical pictures are substantiated by examples of patients, which more clearly present each of the disturbances and can be of great help to psychiatry students for their studies and to physicians for the diagnosis and detection of disorders of perception.