Introduction:Gender differences in psychopathological symptoms have frequently been found in chronic schizophrenia and first-episode psychosis (FEP) patients. However, many of the existing studies suffer from methodological problems. Furthermore, very few studies have investigated gender differences in at-risk mental state (ARMS) individuals.Aims:To investigate whether male and female ARMS and FEP patients differ in self- and observer-rated psychopathological symptoms when adjusted for potential confounders.Methods:Psychopathological symptoms were assessed in 117 ARMS and 87 FEP patients by two observer-rated scales:the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) and the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS), and one self-report scale,the Frankfurt Complaint Questionnaire (FCQ). Gender differences were investigated by applying Analyses of Variance using the BPRS, SANS and FCQ subscales as dependent variables and, group and sex as between-subject factors. Furthermore, Analyses of Covariance were conducted by including age, antipsychotic, antidepressant and cannabis use as covariates.Results:No significant gender × patient group interactions were found, suggesting that gender effects did not differ between patient groups. Women showed higher scores in positive psychotic symptoms (BPRS Psychosis/Thought Disturbance) while men had higher scores in negative symptoms (BPRS negative symptoms, SANS total score, and subscales Affective Flattening, Avolition-Apathy and Asociality-Anhedonia). However, the differences did not withstand correction for multiple testing. Furthermore, these results did not change when corrected for potential confounders.Conclusions:Our findings suggest that male and female ARMS and FEP patients do neither differ in self-report nor in observer-rated psychopathological symptoms when corrected for multiple testing and potential confounders.
agreement in emerging psychosis 2 AbstractAim: Research findings on the correlations between self-and observer-ratings of schizophrenic psychopathology are inconsistent and have rarely considered first episode psychosis (FEP) and at-risk mental state (ARMS) for psychosis patients. This study investigated these correlations in ARMS and FEP patients and how they are moderated by disease stage, illness insight, and gender. Methods:In the Basel Früherkennung von Psychosen (FePsy) study, positive and negative psychotic and affective symptoms were rated in 126 ARMS and 94 FEP patients using two observer and three self-rating scales. The agreement between selfand observer-ratings and the moderating influence of disease stage, illness insight, and gender was quantified using Pearson correlation and multiple regression models. Results:Correlations between self-and observer-rated subscales covering the same symptom dimension were low and mostly non-significant except for one correlation of positive and one of negative symptoms. There was no moderating influence of disease stage, illness insight, and gender on the correlations between selfand observer-ratings except for one higher association in positive symptoms in FEP compared to ARMS and in women compared to men. Conclusions:This study suggest that the agreement between self-and observerratings in FEP and ARMS patients is rather low, similar across symptom dimensions, and not dependent of illness insight, but partially of disease stage and gender. However, low correlations between self-and observer-ratings must not necessarily mean that these patients have difficulties reporting their symptoms. They could also have occurred because the scales did not exactly cover the same symptom dimensions.Keywords: gender, insight, observer-rating, psychosis, self-rating 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 IntroductionThe coherence between self-and observer-ratings assessing psychopathology is an emerging topic in current research. Observer-rating scales are considered objective measures of the severity of psychopathological symptoms in patients with a psychotic disorder, but they need a well-trained professional and are time-consuming. Self-rating scales, on the other hand, are less time-consuming and can also be applied by less trained professionals. However, it is unclear whether self-and observer-rating scales measure similar constructs and whether psychosis patients are able to report their symptoms with sufficient accuracy. 1Since schizophrenia patients have many features (e.g. poor insight, denial, delusions, cognitive deficits) that could hinder an accurate self-rating of their symptoms, it has long been assumed that self-ratings -especially of positive psychotic symptoms -are unreliable in these patients. 2, 3 However, our literature research revealed that at least five studies found a ...
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