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Hallucinations and Delusions as Symptoms of Schizophrenia

Hallucinations and delusions are one of the main signs of an acute mental disorder. It is a mistake to call them exclusively signs of schizophrenia, since they can accompany other mental illnesses. That is why, when treating a patient with similar symptoms, a thorough medical examination and differential diagnosis are extremely necessary .       

But here we will consider these phenomena precisely within the framework of this disease, where they are positive (productive) symptoms of schizophrenia. That is, in the picture of the disease, something appears that can not be normal for a person .         

To begin with , hallucinations and delusions in schizophrenia are signs of acute psychosis that require immediate referral to qualified psychiatric help. It must be remembered that the further course of the disease is influenced by how timely and efficiently its acute manifestation was stopped. The sooner the patient’s relatives take care of the assistance, the more favorable the prognosis. A gross mistake is that, for some reason, relatives expect such symptoms of schizophrenia to disappear “by themselves”, or there is simply no one to take care of the patient, and then the acute psychotic state continues to progress. Naturally, in this case, it becomes more and more difficult to stop it.                

Hallucinations in schizophrenia

Most often, in the diagnosis of schizophrenia, auditory hallucinations are found when a person hears certain sounds or voices that are not in objective reality. Voices often initially comment on the actions of man, then it can start to criticize, threaten, and for the unfolding of psychosis, even ordering to be committed, or other actions. This is very dangerous, first of all, for the patient himself, since he can harm himself or the people around him, trying, for example, to protect himself from the danger that does not exist objectively, but exists in his distorted picture of the world.           

Signs of hallucinations:

  • a person suddenly suddenly becomes silent, begins to listen to something, 
  • talks to himself (this, of course, does not include a person’s thoughts out loud or comments about something that he perceives or experiences at the moment in reality, for example, “Where did this book go …”),       
  • sudden, unreasonable laughter,
  • growing isolation, inability to concentrate on the conversation. 

Delusional Disorder in Schizophrenia

Delirium is another of the acute symptoms of schizophrenia. These are certain beliefs of a person or his conclusions, which in no way correspond to what surrounds him in reality. This very inconsistency with reality is one of the first signs that an idea, a belief is delusional. The second feature of delirium is its stability and the fact that these ideas defy any outside reasonable counter-arguments .          

According to statistics, about 80% of people with schizophrenia? suffer from various kinds of delusions. 

In their content, delusional ideas can be different. So, are classified: 

  • Delusional relationship (most common). A person feels himself in the center of all the phenomena and events happening around him : the actions of everyone, even completely unfamiliar and accidentally passing people, the expressions of their faces, passing cars and other things.      
  • Delirium of persecution , when the patient is sure that some people / person / organization intend to cause him some harm, are watching or are already causing some harm (neighbors gas, relatives add poison to food , etc.).    
  • Delirium of influence (mental or physical), when a person is convinced that his thoughts, actions, experiences are connected not with his internal personal motives, but are the result of the influence of some external force: witchcraft, hypnosis, cosmic rays.    

Less common, but so also can meet other types of delirium.  

The productive symptoms of schizophrenia can be gradual or sudden onset. Regardless of the rate of development of such an acute condition in schizophrenia, you should immediately seek medical help. Remember: a person with such manifestations of the disease is often not able to ask for help, since the picture of the world and the perception of his own state are very distorted for him. Especially if this is the first attack, the manifestation of schizophrenia.       

Qualitative relief of such conditions is impossible outside the hospital. The sooner assistance is provided, the more favorable the future prognosis will be.

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