schizophrenia - positive and negative symptoms

positive symptoms definition

these are symptoms that distort one’s perception of normal life and hinder their ability to complete normal tasks or function normally.

positive symptoms:

hallucinations, delusions, disorganized speech, catatonic behaviour

explain hallucinations and delusions

• hallucinations are unreal perceptions and distortions of the sufferers environment (auditory or visual)

• delusions are bizarre beliefs that a sufferer believes to be true (inflated beliefs about their power and importance - such as the belief that they have superpowers)

explain disorganized speech and catatonic behaviour

• disorganized speech is where the patient has issues organizing thoughts and concepts into a logical structure and this displays itself via their talk and speech (incoherence)

• catatonic behaviour is the patient’s inability to complete tasks due to feelings of severe amotivation (decreased in personal hygiene and poor daily living)

negative symptoms definition

these are symptoms that reflect a complete loss or reduction in normal living and functioning.

negative symptoms:

anhedonia, avolition, speech poverty, affective flattening

explain affective flattening and speech poverty

• affective flattening is when the patient displays a reduction in their range and intensity of emotional expression (body language, gestures, eye-contact, facial expression)- less smiles!

• speech poverty is when the sufferer displays a reduction in speech fluency and productivity (fewer words and less complex sentences - short clauses)

explain avolition and anhedonia

• avolition is when the patient displays a reduction in interests or desires and goal-orientated behaviour (any behaviour that requires self-motivation from the patient, such as joining a club or maintaining appearance at meetings)

• anhedonia is the complete loss of pleasure from all activities and lack of reactivity to stimuli that typically invokes feelings of pleasure

• social anhedonia - lack of pleasure from social situations

• physical anhedonia - lack of pleasure from physical stimuli (food, bodily contact)