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The Prevalence and Diagnostic Significance of Schneiderian First-Rank Symptoms in a Random Sample of Acute Psychiatric In-patients

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 January 2018

John C. O'Grady
John C. O'Grady*
Affiliation:
Newcastle General Hospital, Westgate Road, Newcastle Upon Tyne NE4 6BE;, St Nicholas Hospital, Newcastle upon Tyne
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Abstract

Ninety-nine acute in-patients were interviewed within four days of admission to hospital. The interview included items concerning all 11 first-rank symptoms. Two definitions (wide and narrow) of each first-rank symptom were employed. Three definitions of schizophrenia and a research diagnosis of major affective disorder were used to determine their relationship with first-rank symptoms. Of subjects with schizophrenia, 73% had first-rank symptoms, as had five (14%) of 34 subjects with affective disorder. The results do not support the hypothesis that first-rank symptoms are specific to schizophrenia, although the specificity of first-rank symptoms for schizophrenia increased if a narrow rather than a wide definition of symptoms was employed.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 156 , Issue 4 , April 1990 , pp. 496 - 500
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1990 

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