Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T11:46:09.419Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Assessment of Insight in Psychosis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Anthony David ,
Alec Buchanan ,
Alison Reed  and
Osvaldo Almeida
Anthony David*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological Medicine, King's College Hospital and the Institute of Psychiatry, Denmark Hill, London SE5 9RS
Alec Buchanan
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry
Alison Reed
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry
Osvaldo Almeida
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry
*
∗Correspondence
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

An assessment schedule was used to determine the nature of insight in 91 mixed psychotic patients, and to examine its distribution and associations. While all the components of the schedule intercorrelated significantly, scores for compliance were only weakly related to those for ability to label psychotic phenomena as abnormal. Compliance and illness recognition were related to IQ. Total insight score was inversely correlated, moderately, with a global measure of psychopathology derived from the PSE, and was less in patients involuntarily committed. Age, sex, diagnosis, and the number of previous hospital admissions had little effect. The results support the notion that insight is not a unitary concept.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 161 , Issue 5 , November 1992 , pp. 599 - 602
Copyright
Copyright © 1992 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Amador, X. F., Strauss, D. H., Yale, S. A., et al (1991) Awareness of illness in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 17, 113–132.Google Scholar
Appleby, L. & Forshaw, D. M. (1990) Postgraduate Psychiatry-Clinical and Scientific Foundations. Oxford: Heinemann Medical Books.Google Scholar
Bartko, G., Herczeg, I. & Zador, G. (1988) Clinical symptomatology and drug compliance in schizophrenic patients. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 77, 74–76.Google Scholar
Brett-Jones, J. R., Garety, P. & Hemsley, D. (1987) Measuring delusional experiences: a method and its application. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 26, 256–257.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cutting, J. (1985) The Psychology of Schizophrenia. London: Churchill Livingstone.Google Scholar
David, A. S. (1990) Insight and psychosis. British Journal of Psychiatry, 156, 798–808.Google Scholar
Dittman, J. & Schuttler, R. (1990) Disease consciousness and coping strategies of patients with schizophrenic psychosis. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 82, 318–322.Google Scholar
Frith, C. D. & Frith, U. (1991) Elective affinities in schizophrenia and childhood autism. In Social Psychiatry, Theory, Methodology and Practice (ed. P. Bebbington). New Brunswick: Transactions Press.Google Scholar
Garety, P. & Hemsley, D. R. (1987) Characteristics of delusional experience. European Archives of Psychiatry and Neurological Sciences, 236, 294–298.Google Scholar
Gelder, M., Gath, D. & Mayou, R. (1983) Oxford Textbook of Psychiatry. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Greenfield, D., Strauss, J. S., Bowers, M. B., et al (1989) Insight and interpretation of illness in recovery from psychosis, Schizophrenia Bulletin, 15, 245.Google Scholar
Heinrichs, D. W., Cohen, B. P. & Carpenter, W. T. (1985) Early insight and the management of schizophrenia decompensation. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 173, 133–138.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kendler, K. S., Glazer, W. M. & Morgenstern, H. (1983) Dimensions of delusional experience. American Journal of Psychiatry, 140, 466–469.Google Scholar
Lancet (1990) Real insight. Lancet, 336, 408–409.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, A. (1934) The psychopathology of insight. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 14, 332–348.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lin, I. F., Spiga, R. & Fortsch, W. (1979) Insight and adherence to medication in chronic schizophrenics. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 40, 430–432.Google Scholar
McEvoy, J. P., Apperson, L. J., Applebaum, P. S., et al (1989a) Insight into schizophrenia. Its relationship to acute psychopathology. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 177, 43–47.Google Scholar
McEvoy, J. P., Freter, S., Everett, G., et al (1989b) Insight and the clinical outcome of schizophrenic patients. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 177, 48–51.Google Scholar
McEvoy, J. P., Applebaum, P. S., Apperson, L. J., et al (1989c) Why must some schizophrenic patients be involuntarily committed? The role of insight. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 30, 13–17.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nelson, H. E. & O'Connell, N. A. (1978) Dementia: an estimation of premorbid intelligence levels using the New Adult Reading Test. Cortex, 14, 234–244.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Overall, J. E. & Gorham, D. R. (1962) The brief psychiatric rating scale. Psychological Reports, 10, 799–812.Google Scholar
Pan, P-C. & Tantum, D. (1989) Clinical characteristics, health beliefs and compliance with maintenance treatment: a comparison between regular and irregular attenders at a depot clinic. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 79, 564–570.Google Scholar
Van Putten, T., Crumpton, E. & Yale, C. (1976) Drug refusal in schizophrenia and the wish to be crazy. Archives of General Psychiatry, 33, 1443–1446.Google Scholar
Wing, J. K., Cooper, J. E. & Sartorius, N. (1974) Measurement and Classification of Psychiatric Symptoms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
World Health Organization (1973) Report of the International Pilot of Schizophrenia, Vol. 1. Geneva: WHO.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.