Évaluation de la compréhension et appréciation de l’humour chez les sujets schizophrènes comparés à une population témoin : étude pilote

Abstract

IntroductionThe sarcastic humor is a form of mind “that seeks to highlight the absurd or unusual aspects of reality comic character, ridiculous”. Several studies have reported a deficit in the ability to understand the humor in patients with schizophrenia would be associated with a deficit in theory of mind (Delay et al., 1954; Sarfati and Hardy-Bayle, 1999). ObjectivesThe main objective of our study was to evaluate the ability of understanding and appreciation of humor compared to healthy volunteers schizophrenic patients. Secondary objectives were to study the relationship between psychotic symptoms and the ability to appreciate and understand the humor. MethodologyPilot study comparing schizophrenic patients to a control population matched for sex and age. Twenty-one patients (16 H and 5 F) age of 35.95 (±11) years with paranoid schizophrenia (DSM-IV), stabilized for more than 3months were compared with 21 healthy subjects, matched for sex (15 M/6 F) age (35.24±9.17) and the socio-cultural level (P>.05). Patients were assessed by the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS, Kays et al., 1987), Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms (SAPS, Boyer et al., 1984) fNART (intellectual disabilities, Nelson, 1982), TOM (predictive ability of others intentions, Sarfati et al., 1997). Healthy subjects were clinically evaluated by a MINI 500 (2005), two scales straight depression and self Hamilton Development of a Rating Scale for Primary Depressive Illness (HDRS) and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), TOM. Humor was evaluated for 2 people with a support 54 pictures inspired test Marjoram (2005) and six support videos for assessing understanding and appreciation of humor. Results1/Data analysis of the understanding of humor by the image carrier shows that only understanding Funny images without TOM is significantly lower for patients with schizophrenia, compared to healthy controls (P=0.015). Within the same group, only the group of patients included less well Funny pictures with TOM (P=0.021) and without TOM (P=0.05), the Neutrals images. No difference was found for the understanding of humor in healthy subjects between the three types of images. 2/Data on the appreciation of humor showed no significant difference between the 2 groups. 3/Analysis video support shows no significant difference between the two groups for the three categories of videos (P>.05). ConclusionOur results highlight a deficiency in understanding the humor in schizophrenic patients compared to healthy with only the image without TOM carrier subjects. There were no differences between the two populations with the video. These findings underscore the importance of the support and the need for multiple approaches to assessment in this type of study.