Schizophrenia

• Positive (Type I) symptoms involve additional symptoms that are not associated with the ordinary human experience, such as delusions and hallucinations.
• Delusions are defined as bizarre, irrational beliefs that make sense to the schizophrenic individual but must be bizarre to others for a diagnosis.
• There are three types of delusions: Delusions of persecution, Delusions of grandeur, and Delusions of reference.
• Delusions of persecution involve the belief that the individual is being punished by an external force, such as the government or aliens.
• Delusions of grandeur involve the belief that the individual is associated with a famous historical, political, or religious figure, such as Jesus or Napoleon.
• Delusions of reference involve the belief that the individual is being communicated to via TV or radio.
• Disordered thinking is a specific type of delusion where the individual believes their thoughts are being interfered with.
• There are three forms of interference in disordered thinking: Withdrawals, where the individual believes their thoughts are being removed from their mind; Insertions, where the individual believes their thoughts are being inserted into their mind; and Broadcasts, where the individual believes their thoughts are being transmitted to others via TV or radio.
• Speech disorganisation is classified in the DSM-V as a positive symptom because it is an additional symptom that is not experienced by the general population.
• Speech poverty, also known as alogia, is a negative symptom because it emphasizes the reduction in the amount and quality of speech.
• Nancy Andreasen identified three signs of avolition: poor personal hygiene, lack of energy, and lack of persistence in work or education.
• Affective Flattening is a condition where schizophrenic individuals tend not to provide cues to show their emotional involvement in a conversation, such as lack of facial gestures, body language, and eye contact, and have a monotone voice.
• In psychiatry, the latter is often referred to as "Knight's move thinking".
• Speech disorganisation is a condition where speech is incoherent, or the speaker changes topic mid-sentence.
• Avolition, also known as apathy, is a condition where schizophrenic individuals have difficulty beginning or keeping up with a goal-directed ability, often lacking motivation to carry out a range of activities.
• Speech poverty is characterized by changes in speech pattern, such as a reduction in the amount and quality of speech.
• Speech poverty sometimes accompanies delay in verbal responses during conversation.
• Hallucinations are unusual sensory experiences that must be bizarre, typically auditory but can involve other senses including gustatory, olfactory, tactile, and visual.
• A common example of an auditory hallucination is hearing voices commenting on another person, which must be negative and criticising for a diagnosis.
• Negative (Type II) symptoms involve the loss of usual abilities, but can be experienced in everyday life.