Psychotic symptoms

Hallucinations: People with schizophrenia may hear, see, or less commonly, taste, smell or feel things that are not there. Delusions: Ideas that are strange and out of touch with reality, often under the categories of o Paranoia Belief that others can read your thoughts, are plotting against you, or secretly monitoring your activities. o Grandiosity Belief that you can control other peoples minds, or that you are a well-known historical or media figure, or an important and influential personage

Negative Symptoms

Affective Flattening: Marked by diminished emotional responsiveness, including: few expressive gestures; changes in facial expression; stilted, forced or artificial gestures; poor eye contact; lack of vocal inflection; decreased spontaneous movements. Poverty of speech and of its content; lack of spontaneity and flow of conversation; inability to communicate. Apathy Associated with social withdrawal: physical anergia; impaired grooming and hygiene; lack of persistence in performing activities. Few recreational interests/ activities; impaired personal and sexual relationships; uncommunicative, detached, distant. Inattention: Impaired concentration: social inattentiveness; inattentiveness during conversation/interview; poor rapport.

Cognitive Symptoms

Disorganized Perceptions: People with schizophrenia often have a hard time making sense of everyday sights, sounds, and feelings. Perceptions of what is going on may be distorted so ordinary things seem distracting or frightening. Extra sensitivity to background noises, colours and shapes. Disorganized Thinking and Speech: Trouble understanding language, communicating in coherent sentences, or carrying on a conversation. Odd word association; word salad. Disorganized Behaviour: Loss of short term memory and organizational skills make planning, prioritizing, and decision-making tasks very difficult, if not impossible.

British Columbia Schizophrenia Society (2007). Schizophrenia Facts. http://www.bcss.org/2007/09/resources/topics-by-type/downloads/schizophrenia-fact-sheet/

Schizophrenia/Psychosis Early Warning Signs

Deterioration of personal hygiene Depression Bizarre behaviour Irrational statements Sleeping excessively or inability to sleep Social withdrawal, isolation, and reclusiveness Shift in basic personality Unexpected hostility Deterioration of social relationships Hyperactivity or inactivityor alternating between the two Inability to concentrate or to cope with minor problems Extreme preoccupation with religion or with the occult Excessive writing without meaning Indifference Dropping out of activitiesor out of life in general Decline in academic or athletic interests Forgetting things Losing possessions Extreme reactions to criticism Inability to express joy Inability to cry, or excessive crying Inappropriate laughter Unusual sensitivity to stimuli (noise, light, colours, textures) Drug or alcohol abuse Fainting Strange posturing Refusal to touch persons or objects; wearing gloves, etc. Shaving head or body hair Cutting oneself; threats of self-mutilation Staring without blinkingor blinking incessantly Flat, reptile-like gaze Rigid stubbornness Peculiar use of words or odd language structures Sensitivity and irritability when touched by others.

http://www.bcss.org/2008/07/resources/early-warning-signs/