INSIGHT AND ILLNESS IN CHRONIC-SCHIZOPHRENIA

The role of insight in relation-to the diagnosis and treatment of psyc hotic disorders has received renewed attention in psychiatric and psyc hological literature. Degree of insight has been found to generally as sociate with social and occupational functioning, prognosis, and treat ment outcome. However, the relationship between insight and symptoms o f illness is not known due to previous studies that yielded conflictin g results. This study tested the association between general insight a nd symptomatology in a sample of 66 patients with chronic schizophreni a. Degree of insight was significantly related to positive symptomatol ogy; however, it was not related to demographics, negative symptoms, g eneral psychopathology, or global functioning. These results are suppo rted by several other investigations in this area. Copyright (C) 1998 by W.B. Saunders Company.