The important symptoms include

Delusions –false fixed belief:

These are not in keeping with what others in the same background think. For example, other members in the family do not share the belief. The reasoning of the belief cannot be understood. There may be no evidence to support the belief. e.g. The person may believe that visitors to the house have come to cause harm to them in some way. There are many types of delusions such as Persecution, Reference, Control, Bizarre, Infidelity, Grandiosity etc.

Hallucinations

Hallucinations happen when there is no appropriate stimulus for the experience. This is usually identified by talking to themselves softly (muttering, mumbling) or loudly, gesturing, or laughing to self. The person will report that he can hear one voice talking to him directly or two or more voices discussing about him. Auditory hallucinations are most common in schizophrenia. Hallucinations can also be experienced through vision, smell, taste or touch sensations.

Behavioirs:

Behaviors exhibited can often be a reflection of hallucinations and delusions.e.g

• -Talking / smiling/ gestueing to self are in response to the hallucinations, e. g. stuffings cotton into the ear, using ear plugs and ear phones.
• -People can act out on false beliefs-behaviors are dependent on what they perceive or think.
• -They can pick up fight with family, friends, neighbours, collegues.
• -Many families report that they see their relative pre-occupied with their own thoughts.
• -There are others behaviors which are not related directly to hallucinations and delusions but are also signsicant as part of the presentation.

Neglect of personal hygiene:

• Not bathing, shaving, brushing, grooming, not changing clothes, wearing unclean and / or torn clothes etc.
• Decrease in care of surrounding- living/ working environment is neglected.
• Odd/ strange behaviors-hoarding, eating non-edible stuff, dressing strangely , wearing strange jewelry, talisman, disrobing etc.
• They tend to wander around, and/ or disappear from home for days together.

Conversations:

Conversations are often limited/ stilted. They may not engage in Conversations and if forced, may answer in monosyllables. They can get irritated if pressured to talk. The speech of the person with schizophrenia will be irrelevant to the question asked. There could be a reduction in expression of emotions or inappropriately expressed emotions. The speech is often monotonous with no voice inflections or facial expessions. The person may show emptions which do not fit with the conversation and circumstances.

Often, there is difficulty in enjoying pleasurable activities, which prevents the person from participating in day to day and leisure activities.