B. Nowotny et al., HOW THE ONSET OF SCHIZOPHRENIA BREAKS INT O THE SOCIAL-DEVELOPMENT - IMPACT ON SOCIAL DISABILITY VERSUS SOCIAL READAPTATION, Zeitschrift fur klinische Psychologie, 25(3), 1996, pp. 208-220
A subsample of first hospitalized schizophrenics (n = 133; 66 m, 64 f)
was taken from the Mannheim ABC Schizophrenia Study (Age, Beginning a
nd Course). Ar first admission these patients were retrospectively ass
essed back to their first symptom and prospectively assessed up to thr
ee years after wards. The instrument we used was the Interview for the
Retrospective Assessment of the Onset of Schizophrenia (IRAOS). This
instrument assesses the social biography of the patient as well as the
symptom development up to the time of first admission. We found that
men were younger than women at every definition of onset (at first adm
ission men are 27.6 and women are 32.2 years old). Ar the time of onse
t men have fulfilled few social roles. We tested by means of logistic
regression a model which hypothesized that the following factors influ
enced social disability: age at onset, level of social development, op
erationalized with the variables educational level, employment, income
, living situation and partnership, type of onset (acute, subacute or
insiduous), degree of psychopathological disorder in the course and ge
nder. The social development at. onset of psychotic symptomatology pro
ved to be a useful predictor of later social disability as was to a le
sser degree ape at onset and gender.