In psychiatry, thought withdrawal is the delusional belief that thoughts have been 'taken out' of the patient's mind, and the patient has no power over this. It is often associated with disturbances in self-experience, self-agency, and identity.[1] Thought withdrawal is classified as Schneider’s first-rank symptom (FRS) of schizophrenia in 1959, alongside related phenomena like thought insertion (the belief that thoughts are being implanted into one’s mind) and thought broadcasting (the belief that one’s thoughts are being transmitted to others). These symptoms are typically regarded as signs of psychosis and are central to the diagnosis of schizophrenia spectrum disorders.[2]
- ^ Sass, L. A., & Parnas, J. (2003). Schizophrenia, consciousness, and the self. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 29(3), 427–444. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.schbul.a007017
- ^ Malinowski, F. R., Tasso, B. C., Ortiz, B. B., Higuchi, C. H., Noto, C., Belangero, S. I., Bressan, R. A., Gadelha, A., & Cordeiro, Q. (2020). Schneider’s first-rank symptoms as predictors of remission in antipsychotic-naive first-episode psychosis. Brazilian Journal of Psychiatry, 42(1), 22–26. https://doi.org/10.1590/1516-4446-2018-0237