characteristics of schizophrenia

• Positive symptoms of schizophrenia


  • Hallucinations
  • Delusions
  • Disordered thinking
• Hallucinations


  Perceptions of the environment that are unreal, can be auditory, visual, or tactile
• Hallucinations


  • Hearing voices talking to them about their own behaviour
  • Seeing lights, objects or faces that aren't there
  • Sensing insects crawling on or under the skin (formication)
• Delusions


  Beliefs that are unreal and often bizarre, usually experienced despite lack of evidence
• Delusions


  • Delusions of paranoia (belief someone/organisation wants to harm them)
  • Delusions of grandeur (belief they are more powerful/knowledgeable than they really are)
• Disordered thinking


  • Thoughts jump from one topic to another with no logical pattern, speech is muddled and incoherent (loose associations, word salad)
  • Thoughts are not their own, have been put there by a third party (thought insertion), removed (thought withdrawal), or broadcast to everyone (e.g. through TV/radio)
• Negative symptoms of schizophrenia

  • Alogia (poverty of speech)
  • Avolition (indifference to surroundings, lack of motivation)
  • Anhedonia (inability to react to pleasurable experiences)
  • Flatness of affect (lack of emotion, monotonous speech)
  • Catatonic behaviour (rigid posture, waxy flexibility, repetitive movements)
• Alogia


  Poverty of speech, reduction in amount and meaning of speech
• Avolition


  Indifference to surroundings, lack of motivation and goal-directed behaviour
• Anhedonia


  Inability to react appropriately to pleasurable experiences
• Flatness of affect


  Lack of emotion, monotonous speech without usual intonation
• Catatonic behaviour


  Rigid posture, waxy flexibility, repetitive useless movements, loud utterances, mimicking others' movements (echopraxia)
• Prodromal symptoms


  Early symptoms indicating onset of schizophrenia, occurring weeks/months before full symptoms
• Prodromal symptoms


  • Loss of interest in usual activities
  • Avoiding company of others
  • Staying away from work/school
  • Irritability and oversensitivity
  • Lack of interest in personal appearance and hygiene
  • Generalised anxiety
  • Mild depression
• Prodromal symptoms alone are not enough to diagnose schizophrenia, as they characterise other mental illnesses