Schizophrenia-related Illness Research Articles

Base rates, blindness, and schizophrenia

GENERAL COMMENTARY article Front. Psychol., 03 April 2013Sec. Psychopathology Volume 4 - 2013 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00157

Stigma Despite Recovery

In this article, we identify an array of creative strategies used by persons diagnosed with schizophrenia-related illness to deflect and resist social stigma, and address the lived experience of deploying these strategies in the intersubjective context of everyday life. The data are derived from anthropological interviews and ethnographic observations of ninety persons who received treatment at community mental health facilities in an urban North American locale. Nearly all were keenly aware of stigma that permeated their lives. Their predicament is contradictory: on the one hand, they have recovered relative to previous states of psychosis; on the other hand, their subjectivity is saturated by intense awareness of social stigma that seems intractable in relation to temporal or functional criteria. Ironically, these lives can be characterized as fraught with stigma despite recovery. The strategies generated to resist the impact of stigma highlight the fact that persons with these illnesses are often not only exceedingly socially aware but also strategically skilled in response to social assaults on their personhood and survival. We examine these strategies in terms of (1) the social characteristics of each afflicted person, (2) the situational characteristics of managing stigma, (3) the cultural context of recovery, and (4) the illness-specific characteristics of schizophrenia.

Longitudinal construct validity of Brief Symptom Inventory subscales in schizophrenia.

Longitudinal validity of Brief Symptom Inventory subscales was examined in a sample (N = 318) with schizophrenia-related illness measured at baseline and every 6 months for 3 years. Nonlinear factor analysis of items was used to test graded response models (GRMs) for subscales in isolation. The models varied in their within-time and between-times parameter constraints, with the homogeneous model being the least constrained, followed by the 2-parameter GRM and 1-parameter GRM. Results show that 4 subscales (Interpersonal Sensitivity, Hostility, Paranoid Ideation, Psychoticism) were consistent with the 1-parameter GRM, and 5 subscales (Somatization, Obsessive-Compulsive, Depression, Anxiety, Phobic Anxiety) were consistent with the 2-parameter GRM. There is evidence that the 9 subscales may be validly used to study change in single constructs over time.

Context-Processing Deficits in Schizotypal Personality Disorder.

Research suggests that schizotypal personality disorder (SPD) is a part of the spectrum of schizophrenia-related illnesses. This article hypothesizes that a deficit in the representation and maintenance of context is a core cognitive disturbance in schizophrenia and that SPD individuals should demonstrate context-processing deficits. To test this hypothesis, the authors administered 3 versions of their AX-CPT task, designed to assess context processing, to 35 healthy controls and 26 individuals with DSM-IV SPD. They also administered working memory and selective attention tasks. SPD individuals displayed context representation deficits similar to those found in schizophrenia but did not show the same additional deficits in context maintenance. Context processing was strongly associated with working memory and selective attention performance in the SPD individuals.

Schizophrenia and reactions towards the deaths of fellow patients in a psychiatric in-patient unit. Some psychological considerations

Knudson, H.V. (2004). Schizophrenia and reactions towards the deaths of fellow patients in a psychiatric in-patient unit. Nordisk Psykologi, 56, 3, xxx-xxx. During a period of eight months, five long-term hospitalized patients with a schizophrenia diagnosis died unexpectedly in a ward for chronically ill psychiatric patients. This naturalistic experiment turned out to be a unique opportunity to observe the reactions of the other long-term patients towards these deaths. Two main patterns of responses could be observed: one group, having other diagnoses than schizophrenia or schizophrenia-related illnesses, showed normal reactions along the lines that one would expect within the range of a normal, non-patient population. The other group, consisting exclusively of patients with a chronic schizophrenic illness, could be divided into a sub-group not showing any obvious reactions at all on the one hand and, on the other hand, another sub-group consisting of four patients showing normal emotional reactions towar...

The role of referent and expert power in mutual help.

This study explored the roles of referent power (i.e., influence based on sense of identification) and expert power (i.e., influence based on knowledge and expertise) in Schizophrenics Anonymous (SA), a mutual-help group for persons experiencing a schizophrenia-related illness. The study describes SA participants' experience of referent and expert power with SA members, SA leaders, and with mental health professionals. It also examines whether or not referent and expert power ascribed to fellow SA participants predicts the perceived helpfulness of the group. One hundred fifty-six SA participants were surveyed. Participants reported experiencing higher levels of referent power with fellow SA members and leaders than with mental health professionals. They reported higher levels of expert power for mental health professionals and SA leaders than for SA members. The respondents' ratings of their SA group's helpfulness was significantly correlated with ratings of referent and expert power. Although expert power was the best independent predictor of helpfulness, a significant interaction between referent and expert power indicated that when members reported high referent power, expert power was not related to helpfulness. These results are interpreted to suggest that there are multiple forms of social influence at work in mutual help.

The temporal lobes, reversed asymmetry and the genetics of schizophrenia

Mechanisms determining temporal lobe structural asymmetries may be involved in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. To investigate the temporal lobes in familial schizophrenia, computed tomographic scans were obtained from 51 subjects (seven families). Enlargement of sylvian fissures and temporal lobe sulcal spaces was observed in family members with schizophrenia. The posterior one-third of the sylvian fissure was larger on the left side in subjects with schizophrenia, and larger on the right side in unaffected individuals. This disturbed pattern of posterior sylvian fissure asymmetry suggests that adjacent language regions may be affected in schizophrenia. An intermediate degree of disturbance in subjects who had schizophrenia-related illnesses or were obligate carriers suggests that genetic factors may be important determinants of temporal lobe asymmetries in familial schizophrenia.

DSM-III schizophrenia: is there evidence for familial transmission.

To resolve some recent controversies as to whether there is any evidence of familial transmission in DSM-III schizophrenia, a blind study of first degree relatives of 332 DSM-III schizophrenia was conducted. A comparison group of first degree relatives of 318 surgical patients who were free of psychiatric symptoms were also studied. The morbidity risks of schizophrenia and related illnesses were estimated among these relatives. The risk of DSM-III schizophrenia in the relatives of schizophrenics was 3.7 + 0.7 which was significantly higher (p less than .01) than among the relatives of surgical controls (0.2% + 0.2) with a relative risk of 18.5 (3.7/0.2). When broad criteria of schizophrenia were used by including all schizophrenia-related illnesses, the risks were approximately 9.0% and 1.0% respectively in the families of schizophrenics and controls with a relative risk of 9.0. These results will be discussed in the light of relevant literature. It is concluded that there is an evidence for familial transmission in DSM-III schizophrenia.

La Amistad: Starting an Inpatient Program for Severely Disturbed Young Adults

Because of the lack of adequate local facilities for young people with schizophrenia-related illnesses, a psychiatrist in private practice established an inpatient program in a remodeled house next to his office. The main treatment method is behavior modification; family and group therapy and group activities are also used. Houseparents live on the premises, but the residents are responsible for the day-to-day operation of the house, and the patient government monitors all activity. Follow-up 44 months after the program opened showed that about three-fourths of the 70 residents who had left were considered improved or much improved.

Mental illness in the biological and adoptive families of adpoted schizophrenics.

Adoption has been used as a means of separating genetic and environmental factors in the transmission of schizophrenia among family members. In the study reported here, a significantly higher than usual prevalence of schizophrenia-related illness was found among the biological relatives of adopted schizophrenics, but not among their adoptive relatives. The findings support a genetic transmission of vulnerability to schizophrenia, but also imply the requirement of nongenetic, environmental factors for the development of clinical schizophrenic illness.