Psychotic Symptoms

Psychotic events, particularly delusions and hallucinations, are the most widely recognized signs of schizophrenia. Hallucinations can take the form of either seeing or hearing things that don't exist. Auditory hallucinations, such as hearing voices that go unheard by others, are the most common symptoms. Delusions, on the other hand, are fixed, false beliefs; they can be bizarre (“there is an alien in the dog”) or non-bizarre (unwarranted jealousy, or often the paranoid belief in being persecuted or watched). When psychotic symptoms do occur, they usually begin in men between the ages of 17 and 30 and in women between the ages of 20 and 40. After the initial event, psychotic symptoms usually occur episodically and are often interspersed with periods of remission.