Schizophrenia - Symptoms

Question 1

Positive: Hallucinations

Answer 1

Hallucinations are where a patient sees or hears things that do not exist. Voices are harsh and critical, providing a running commentary on what a person is doing

Question 2

Positive: Delusions

Answer 2

Delusions are where a person thinks their actions are being controlled by outside forces. A common delusion is the paranoid delusion where the person believes that someone is trying to mislead, manipulate, or even kill them. They can lead to strange behaviour:
- Thought insertion - believes thoughts are put in the head by someone else
- Thought withdrawal - believes outside forces are taking thoughts from the mind
- Thought broadcasting - believes thoughts are being broadcast to others

Question 3

Positive: Disordered Thinking

Answer 3

Disordered thinking is when someone finds it hard to put their thoughts into logical sense. Speech may be muddled or stop mid sentence, or they may make up words with no meaning

Question 4

Negative: Poverty of speech

Answer 4

Uses as few words as possible

Question 5

Negative: Social withdrawal

Answer 5

No longer interacts with friends or family

Question 6

Negative: Flattening effect

Answer 6

Lack of expression in voice