Overview of Psychotic Symptoms

  • Hallucinations - a perception which occurs in the absence of an external stimulus
  • Ideas of reference - innocuous or coindicental events will be ascribed significant meaning by the person
  • Delusions - a fixed, falsely held belief held with unshakeable conviction
  • Formal thought disorder - thoughts cannot be directly observed, must be inferred from patterns of speech e.g. clanging and punning, Knight's move thinking, loosening of associations
  • Thought interference - thought insertion, thought withdrawal, thought broadcasting, thought blocking
  • Passivity phenomena - passivity of volition (made actions), affect (made feelings), impulse (made urges)
  • Loss of insight
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