Schizophrenia & Psychosis — High-Yield Terms

Echolalia

Repetition of another person's speech or words

Echopraxia

Imitation of another person's movements or actions

Positive Symptoms

Abnormal experiences or behaviors that are added to normal functioning

Negative Symptoms

Reduction or loss of normal emotional, motivational, or social functioning

Disorganized Symptoms

Disturbances in thought organization, speech, or behavior

Affective Flattening

Reduced range and intensity of emotional expression

Alogia

Reduced amount or content of speech

Anhedonia

Reduced ability to experience pleasure

Avolition

Reduced motivation or inability to initiate and persist in goal-directed activities

Asociality

Reduced interest in or desire for social relationships

Loose Associations

Shifting from one topic to another with weak or unclear connections between ideas

Tangentiality

Responding to a question with unrelated information without returning to the original point

Circumstantiality

Giving excessive and unnecessary details but eventually returning to the main point

Derailment

Gradually shifting from one topic to another with little logical connection

Word Salad

Severely disorganized speech in which words and phrases are jumbled with little or no understandable meaning

Neologism

An invented or newly created word that has a private meaning to the individual

Clang Association

Connecting words based on their sounds or rhyming rather than their meaning

Perseveration

Repeating the same word, idea, or response even after the topic has changed

Blocking

Sudden interruption of speech or thought in which the person stops speaking and loses the train of thought

Stupor

A state of markedly reduced responsiveness in which the person is difficult to arouse and shows little spontaneous movement or speech

Mutism

Little or no verbal response despite the ability to speak

Negativism

Resistance to instructions or attempts to move or position the person

Posturing

Actively maintaining a posture against gravity for an extended period

Waxy Flexibility

Maintaining a position after another person places the body or limbs into that position

Catalepsy

Passive induction and maintenance of a posture against gravity

Agitation

Excessive motor activity that is apparently purposeless and not influenced by external stimuli

Grimacing

Maintaining unusual or inappropriate facial expressions

Stereotypy

Repetitive, non-goal-directed movements or behaviors

Mannerism

Odd, exaggerated, or unusual movements that appear purposeful

Delusion

A fixed false belief maintained despite contradictory evidence and not consistent with reality

Persecutory Delusion

Belief that one is being harmed, followed, watched, persecuted, or conspired against

Referential Delusion

Belief that ordinary events, objects, or other people's actions have a special personal meaning directed toward oneself

Grandiose Delusion

Belief that one has exceptional abilities, power, wealth, identity, or importance

Erotomanic Delusion

Belief that another person, often someone of higher status or a celebrity, is in love with the individual

Somatic Delusion

False belief involving bodily functions, sensations, or physical appearance

Nihilistic Delusion

Belief that oneself, one's body, or the world does not exist or is coming to an end

Guilt Delusion

False belief that one has committed or is responsible for an extremely serious wrongdoing

Jealous Delusion

Belief that one's romantic partner is unfaithful despite lack of evidence

Thought Insertion

Belief that thoughts from an external source have been placed into one's mind

Thought Withdrawal

Belief that one's thoughts are being removed or taken away by an external force

Thought Broadcasting

Belief that one's thoughts are accessible to or broadcast to other people

Delusion of Control

Belief that one's thoughts, feelings, impulses, or actions are being controlled by an external force

Capgras Syndrome

Belief that someone familiar has been replaced by an identical-looking impostor

Fregoli Syndrome

Belief that different people are actually one person who repeatedly changes appearance or disguises themselves

Cotard Syndrome

Nihilistic belief that one is dead, does not exist, or has lost one's organs or body parts

Hallucination

A sensory perception experienced without an external stimulus

Auditory Hallucination

Hearing sounds or voices without an external auditory stimulus; the most common hallucination in schizophrenia

Visual Hallucination

Seeing something that is not actually present

Olfactory Hallucination

Smelling something that has no external source

Gustatory Hallucination

Experiencing a taste without an external stimulus

Tactile Hallucination

Feeling physical sensations, such as being touched or having something crawling on the skin, without an external stimulus

Somatic Hallucination

Experiencing unusual bodily sensations without an external physical cause

Autoscopic Hallucination

Seeing one's own body or image in the external environment

Hypnagogic Hallucination

Hallucination-like experiences occurring while falling asleep

Hypnopompic Hallucination

Hallucination-like experiences occurring while waking up

Ictal Hallucination

Hallucination occurring during a seizure, particularly with temporal-lobe seizure activity

Illusion

Misinterpretation or distortion of a real external sensory stimulus

Psychosis

Loss of contact with reality, typically involving delusions, hallucinations, or severely disorganized thinking or behavior

Reality Testing

The ability to distinguish internal experiences or beliefs from external reality

Bizarre Delusion

A delusional belief that is clearly implausible or impossible within ordinary cultural experience

Non-Bizarre Delusion

A false belief involving something that could theoretically occur in real life

Mood-Congruent Psychotic Features

Delusions or hallucinations whose content is consistent with the person's mood

Mood-Incongruent Psychotic Features

Delusions or hallucinations whose content is unrelated to the person's mood

Prodromal Phase

Period before full psychosis characterized by subtle changes in functioning, behavior, cognition, or social interaction

Active Phase

Period in which prominent psychotic symptoms such as delusions, hallucinations, or disorganized speech or behavior are present

Residual Phase

Period after the acute phase in which prominent psychotic symptoms have decreased but some symptoms or functional impairment may remain

Premorbid Functioning

A person's level of functioning before the onset of a disorder

First-Rank Symptoms

Historically emphasized psychotic symptoms strongly associated with schizophrenia, including thought insertion, thought withdrawal, thought broadcasting, and experiences of control

Schizophrenia

Psychotic disorder involving characteristic symptoms with continuous signs of disturbance lasting at least 6 months

Schizophreniform Disorder

Schizophrenia-like disorder lasting more than 1 month but less than 6 months

Brief Psychotic Disorder

Psychotic disorder lasting at least 1 day but less than 1 month, followed by a return toward premorbid functioning

Schizoaffective Disorder

Disorder involving both schizophrenia-spectrum symptoms and major mood episodes, including at least 2 weeks of psychosis without a major mood episode

Delusional Disorder

Disorder characterized by one or more delusions lasting at least 1 month without the prominent disorganization or functional deterioration typically seen in schizophrenia

Substance/Medication-Induced Psychotic Disorder

Psychotic symptoms caused by intoxication, withdrawal, or exposure to a substance or medication