ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the more common symptoms that service users may report. In order to assist readers' understanding, they are discussed and grouped according to a particular type of symptom or feature. The diagnosis of schizophrenia of any type requires the presence of some symptoms for months. Dementia may initially present with innocuous non-specific symptoms that may be misdiagnosed as part of other syndromes such as depression. Delusions are considered common symptoms of a number of major mental health problems, including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression with psychotic features, schizo-affective disorder and dementia. Cognitive and perceptual symptoms such as delusions and hallucinations are major features of ‘psychosis’. Psychosis results in the person’s loss of contact with reality due to the primary symptoms of thought disturbances such as delusions and/or perceptual disturbances such as hallucinations. A symptom of mental illness that has been strongly critiqued in the field of mental health care is that of ‘insight’.
