AWARENESS OF OWN AND OTHERS SCHIZOPHRENIC ILLNESS

Several recent studies have suggested that poor insight among people s uffering from schizophrenia is associated with low intelligence. On th is basis, it was expected that schizophrenic patients with poor insigh t into their own illnesses would have greater difficulty in recognizin g mental illness in others than patients with better insight. This hyp othesis was tested with sets of eight hypothetical case descriptions ( vignettes) which were first validated against the opinions of a group of qualified mental health professionals. Twenty-eight outpatients suf fering from schizophrenia were then asked to rate the vignettes to ind icate how likely it was that the individuals described had mental illn esses. The patients were divided into groups of high and low insight a nd their responses were compared with those of a group of matched norm al controls. The results showed that both groups of patients could dis tinguish between descriptions of psychotic symptoms and normal thought s, feelings and behaviours, and their opinions did nor differ signific antly from those of the controls or the professionals. Thus, insight i nto others' schizophrenic illness appears to be independent of insight into one's own illness. It seems that schizophrenic patients have lit tle difficulty in applying consensual standards to experiences that re flect mental illness provided they are the experiences of other people , even if they have great difficulty applying the same standards to th eir own experiences. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.