Diagnostic features

Recent onset of:

• hallucinations (false or imagined sensations, eg hearing voices when no-one is around, seeing visions)
• delusions (firmly held ideas that are often false and not shared by others in the patient’s social, cultural or ethnic group, eg patient believes they are being poisoned by neighbours, receiving messages from television, or being looked at by others in some special way)
• disorganized or strange speech
• agitation or bizarre behaviour  
• extreme and labile emotional states. 

These symptoms may be preceded by a period of deteriorating social, occupational and academic functioning.

Last edited: 18/8/2003

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