Schizophrenia is one of the mental illnesses that, according to statistics, may affect up to 20 million people worldwide. The most important thing in the case of this entity is its proper treatment, thanks to which patients can function like other people and lead an ordinary family or professional life. However, before any treatment is implemented, it is first necessary to diagnose the illness - that is why it is so important to know what the possible symptoms of schizophrenia are.

In the case of schizophrenia, the symptoms of this illness are divided into two groups, which are negative symptoms and positive symptoms. Just as the negative symptoms are sometimes difficult to notice immediately, so it is different with the positive symptoms.

What can be included among the positive symptoms of schizophrenia?

The positive symptoms of schizophrenia mainly include delusions and hallucinations. The term delusion is used to describe wrong, inconsistent beliefs of the patient, about the truth of which he is fully convinced and no arguments, not even the most rational ones, are able to convince him that he is wrong. The delusional content can be very varied, for example delusions of jealousy, delusions of persecution or delusions of thought-provocation.

Thepositive symptoms of schizophrenia are also the hallucinations mentioned earlier. These are also called hallucinations and may take the form of, for example, auditory hallucinations (e.g. voices telling the patient to do something), visual hallucinations (the patient may see some figures or monsters) or olfactory hallucinations.