Subjective experience and subjective response to neuroleptics in schizophrenia

Although several studies have addressed the issue of the relationship betwe en the subjective response to neuroleptics and drug compliance, Very little attention has been given to the study of the subjective experience of psyc hosis and drug attitudes. The present study was therefore undertaken to exa mine the relationship between the subjective experience of psychosis as ass essed by the Frankfurter Beschwerde-Fragebogen (FBF) and subjective respons e (SR) to neuroleptics as assessed by the Drug Attitude Inventory (DAI) in a group of schizophrenic patients. Significant correlations were found betw een the total scores on the FBF and DAI (r = .46, P <,01). The DAI total sc ore also correlated with all four factors (central cognitive disturbances, perception and motility, depressivity, and internal and external overstimul ation) on the FBF This finding suggests that the SR neuroleptics is partly explained by a "positive" subjective experience of psychosis. Copyright (C) 2000 by W,B. Saunders Company.