The relationship between insight and subjective experience in schizophrenia

Abstract

Objectives

To examine the relationship between level of insight and various subjective experiences for patients with schizophrenia.

Materials and methods

Seventy-four patients with schizophrenia who were discharged from our hospital were evaluated. The level of insight into their illness and various subjective experiences were evaluated at discharge. We used the Scale to Assess Unawareness of Mental Disorder (SUMD) for evaluation of insight. In addition, five different rating scales were used to evaluate subjective experiences: Subjective Experience of Deficits in Schizophrenia (SEDS), Subjective Well-being under Neuroleptic drug treatment Short form (SWNS), Schizophrenia Quality of Life Scale (SQLS), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and the Drug Attitude Inventory (DAI)-30.

Results

The SWNS and the scores for awareness of mental disorder and awareness of the social consequences of mental disorder on SUMD showed a weak positive correlation. The DAI-30 showed a significant negative correlation with most general items on SUMD and a negative correlation between the subscale scores for the awareness and attribution of past symptoms. SEDS, SWNS, SQLS, and the BDI significantly correlated with the subscale scores for awareness of current symptoms on SUMD, and weakly correlated with the subscale scores for attribution of current negative symptoms.

Conclusion

Awareness of subjective distress was related to awareness of having a mental disorder. Feeling subjective distress was related to awareness of current symptoms, as well as to the ability to attribute current negative symptoms to a mental disorder. Positive attitudes toward medication correlated with better general insight into the illness.

Keywords:

• schizophrenia
• insight
• subjective experiences
• subjective deficit
• subjective well-being
• subjective quality of life

Acknowledgments

This research was funded by Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists 18790818 (YK) from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). We would like to thank Dr Yoshie Sakai, Dr Nobuki Kitagawa, Dr Kenzo Denda, and Dr Tsukasa Koyama for their valuable comments.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.