Symptoms of schizophrenia

Positive symptoms

These are hallucinations and delusions.  

These refer to experiences which are additional to normal experience. They are not specific to schizophrenia as psychosis can occur in other mental illnesses as well.

Hallucinations are things that are experienced that are not based in reality (e.g. sounds or visions that appear out of nowhere). Although hallucinations can take any sensory form - auditory (sound), visual (sight), tactile (touch), gustatory (taste) and olfactory (smell) - hearing voices that other people do not hear is the most common type of hallucination in schizophrenia.

Delusions are unshakeable beliefs based on the person’s altered perception of reality, which may not correspond at all to the way others see the world. Delusions may take on different themes – someone experiencing paranoid delusions may believe they are being chased, plotted against or poisoned. These people often believe that a member of their family or someone close to them is making this happen.

Negative symptoms

These are symptoms that involve loss of experience. Someone may for instance have become slower to think, talk and move, and may have become indifferent to social contact or their sleeping patterns may have changed. Body language may also be affected.

The overall result is a reduction in motivation, and the extent of this can vary from minor to severe. Negative symptoms are much less dramatic those caused by psychosis, but they tend to be more persistent, and can remain after positive symptoms fade away.

In some cases, especially with hindsight, families may realise that their relative's behaviour has been changing over a period of time in subtle ways.