The Association Between Psychopathology and Clinical Insight in Patients With Schizophrenia

Abstract

In Taiwan, few studies have explored the associations between insight and psychopathological dimensions in people with schizophrenia. We aimed to investigate the relationships of clinical insight with different dimensional symptoms in patients with schizophrenia, in addition to clinical variables. This cross-sectional study recruited 90 patients from an acute psychiatric ward from December 2017 to May 2019. We assessed the insight of participants using the Schedule for Assessment of Insight in Psychosis (SIP) and psychopathology using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale and its five-factor model. A higher SIP score indicates a poorer insight. In regression analyses, patients' age (t = 3.277, p = 0.002), family history (t = -2.773, p = 0.007), Clinical Global Impressions Scale- Improvement (t = 2.268, p = 0.026), and negative (t = 2.667, p = 0.009), disorganized (t = 2.021, p = 0.047), excited (t = 3.087, p = 0.003), and depressed symptoms (t = -3.950, p ＜ 0.001) were significantly associated with the SIP score. In conclusion, patients with greater insight in the acute phase were associated with younger age, a positive family history, greater improvement of symptoms, less-severe negative symptoms, less-severe disorganized symptoms, less-severe excited symptoms, and more-severe depressed symptoms, but not with cognitive or executive function.