Simplified ICD-10 Diagnostic criteria for Schizophrenia

1. Duration: ≥1 months

2. ≥1 of Schneider’s 1st rank symptoms:

Mnemonic: ABCDE

a. Auditory hallucinations: Voices heard arguing (3rd person), Thought echo, Running commentary

b. Bizzare delusions: Voices coming from some part of the body

c. Control (Delusion of control): Somatic, Impulse, Volition, Affect (SIVA)

d. Delusional perception: A non-hallucinated/true perception whose meaning is significant or triggers a delusional thought system

e. I(e)nterference of thoughts: Insertion, withdrawl, broadcasting

OR

3. ≥2 of the following: ABCD

a. Persistent hallucinations without clear AFFECTIVE content

b. BREAK in train of thought: incoherent or irrelevant speech or neologism

c. Significant and consistent BEHAVIOR change

d. CATATONIC behaviors

Mnemonic: WRENCHES

  • Waxy flexibility (Patient’s limb can be placed in awkward posture and remain fixed in position for long time despite asking to relax)
  • Rigidity
  • Echopraxia (Imitation by the patient of interviewer’s movements)
  • Negativism (Gegenhalten is opposition of passive movements by patient with a force equal to that being applied; Negativism is an extreme form of gegenhalten – motiveless resistance to suggestion/attempts of movements)
  • Catalepsy (Motor symptom of schizophrenia same as waxy flexibility)
  • High level of motor activity
  • Echolalia (Repetition by the patient of the interviewer’s words/phrases)
  • Stupor, Stereotypy (Regular, repetitive non-goal directed movements)

e. DEDUCTIVE (Negative) symptoms: 5 “A“s

  • Alogia (poverty of speech)
  • Anhedonia (Inability to experience pleasure)
  • Affective blunting
  • Asociality
  • Attention impairment


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