Premorbid personality in psychoses

This study aimed to establish correlates of the dimensions of schizophrenia in the premorbid personality traits of patients. A sample of 112 patients of relatively recent illness onset who were admitted for a psychotic episod e were assessed with a semistructured interview for schizophrenia. Positive and negative symptoms were evaluated with the Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms and the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms at the time of hospital discharge; positive, negative, and disorganization sco res were obtained from these scales. Premorbid personality was assessed bli ndly through a partially modified version of the Personality Assessment Sch edule using interviews with the parents or a close relative. Schizoid trait s were significantly associated with negative and positive dimensions. Soci opathic traits were related to the disorganization dimension. Trends toward significance were obtained between passive-dependent traits and the negati ve and disorganization dimensions, and between the schizotypal dimension an d the positive dimension. Partial correlational analyses were used to contr ol for the effect of the remaining personality dimensions on the above rela tionships. Schizoid premorbid traits were still significantly related to th e negative dimension but to a lesser degree to the disorganization and posi tive dimensions. The association between sociopathic premorbid traits and t he disorganization dimension remained significant. These results suggest th e preexistence of a three-dimensional structure predisposing to psychoses w ithin the premorbid personality; this structure is more evident in patients with short illness duration.