Delusions of persecution refer to false beliefs or perceptions in which a person believes that they are being treated with malicious intent, hostility, or harassment – despite significant evidence to suggest otherwise. Imagine waking up and thinking that your next-door neighbor was plotting to kill you, or that your spouse had sprinkled some poison in …
Delusions of grandeur are false beliefs held by an individual in which they believe with full conviction that they are a celebrity, person of high rank, omnipotent, and/or a powerful entity – despite significant evidence to the contrary. Imagine waking up one day thinking that you’re the president of the United States, despite the fact …
Delusions are considered inaccurate beliefs held by an individual, (typically with a mental illness), regardless of logical evidence disproving the belief. A delusion differs from a belief that is held based on insufficient information or perceptual feedback. An example of a non-deluded belief was when scientists initially thought that the Earth was the center of …
Most people have heard of the neurotransmitter dopamine and understand that it’s release is associated with feelings of pleasure and reward. Dopamine functions as a neurotransmitter that plays a major role in reward and motivation behavior. Most rewards such as: food, sex, drugs, etc. are all capable of increasing the level of dopamine in the …
Undifferentiated schizophrenia is characterized by general symptoms of schizophrenia that do not fit a specific classification or diagnosis of another subtype. People may exhibit the traditional “positive” and “negative” symptoms, but they may fluctuate over a period of time. This type of schizophrenia can be particularly challenging to diagnose with confidence because someone needs to …
Residual schizophrenia is one of the 5 types of schizophrenia that is characterized by a long-term history of negative symptoms (i.e. psychomotor slowing), with very infrequent or rare occurrences of positive symptoms. To meet the criteria for diagnosis, the person must have experienced positive symptoms (e.g. hallucinations/delusions/etc.) at some point. With that said, the person …
Paranoid schizophrenia is one of the 5 main subtypes of schizophrenia characterized by an intense paranoia which is often accompanied by delusions and hallucinations. Most people with paranoid schizophrenia have auditory hallucinations (i.e. they hear voices) and may experience delusions that people are “plotting” against them. For example, someone with this illness may believe that …