Insight in social behavioral dysfunction in schizophrenia: Preliminary study

Abstract

Previous studies have demonstrated attenuated insight among schizophrenia subjects about having a mental disorder and about their psychopathology. Few studies, however, have investigated in detail patients' unconcern for their social behavioral problems. Using the subjective and objective versions of the Frontal Systems Behavior Scale (FrSBe), the nature of awareness of social behavioral problems was investigated in chronic schizophrenia subjects. First, schizophrenia subjects were found to have problems in three major domains of social behavior: apathy, disinhibition, and executive dysfunction. Second, awareness, estimated by the difference between the subjective and objective ratings, was not uniformly disturbed in schizophrenia subjects, although it had a significant interaction with the subjects' estimated IQs: subjects with higher IQs had a tendency to overestimate their problems, while those with lower IQs had the opposite tendency. Third, the same pattern of interaction was demonstrated for the retrospective premorbid ratings of FrSBe. Awareness among schizophrenia subjects of their social behavioral problems is affected by their cognitive capacity, and this applies not only to current behaviors but also to the retrospective estimation of their behaviors in the social domain.