In essence, positive symptoms are those that would not be experienced by a well person. Positive symptoms represent the presence of distortion in thought content (delusion), language and thought process (disorganized speech), hallucinations, self-monitoring behavior (grossly disorganized or catatonic behavior) and impaired psychosocial functioning. The positive symptom can be seen as the extroverted manifestations of schizophrenia.
Negative symptoms reflect an absence or loss of normal functions. These symptoms are the lack of experience that well individuals routinely use in their daily life. The DSM-IV-TR describes three negative symptoms in the definition of schizophrenia.
These include a restricted range of emotional expressiveness (affective flattening), decreased fluency and productivity of speech (alogia) and an inability to initiate and persist in goal-directed activities (avolition). These are the introverted manifestation of the illness.
Additional symptoms include a loss of pleasure or interest and social withdrawal and isolation.
Symptoms of schizophrenia
