“What are the early warning signs of psychosis?”

The loss of insight or loss of touch with reality is a fairly agreed upon definition of psychosis. The incipient psychosis or descent into psychosis can be gradual or very rapid and dramatic. In slow onset of psychosis one may observe increase in suspicions or strange belief that patient may be reluctant to endorse too strongly because of the partial insight. The other indicators may be denial of problem, refusal to see a doctor, social isolation and neglect of personal care. Your question about elderly mother suggest that you are worried about onset of dementia. Dementia is a neuropsychological process and even changes in activities that she was able to perform but now has difficulty with same or similar tasks should alert you to get her a thorough evaluation. Most important thing to consider is that the current medications do not reverse the cognitive decline but just slow down the decline and therefore early intervention will provide maximum benefit from treatment.