The relationship between insight and clinical factors for persons with schizophrenia

Association of symptom severity, insight and increased pharmacologic side effects in acutely hospitalized patients with schizophrenia

“…patients with more severe symptoms have less insight into their illness. This was consistent with previous studies [17][18][19][20], one of which, completed in Hong Kong [19], measured insight with the Scale for Assessment of Unawareness of Mental Disorder (SUMD) (higher scores indicating poorer insight), and found a positive association between insight and symptom severity. In contrast, our data suggest that patients with lower levels of symptoms, are likely to have greater insight into their illness, and as a result may suffer from more pharmacological side effects; Table 2 Correlation matrix of pharmacologic side effects, insight and symptoms.…”

“…Such lack of insight is associated with poor mediation compliance [10][11][12][13] and perhaps therefore, with poor prognosis [14,15], reduced social skills, impaired work performance, and increased rates of relapse, re-hospitalization, and increased risk of suicidality and other impulsive behaviors [16,17]. Although the underlying mechanism causing lack of insight is unknown, numerous studies have shown that severity of clinical symptoms is strongly associated with lack of insight [17][18][19][20]. Additionally, lack of insight has been found in several studies to be directly related to poor medication adherence [21][22][23][24], and one author suggested that appreciating the need for treatment was one of the three central features of insight [25].…”

Insight in inpatients with schizophrenia: Relationship to symptoms and neuropsychological functioning

“…Disorganization in patients with schizophrenia represents the most direct clinical expression of mental dissociation and may preclude the capacity to engage in abstract thinking needed to reflect rationally on their anomalous experiences, leaving the individual with schizophrenia without a coherent concept of normality. Several studies have examined the correlations between insight and disorganized/concrete symptoms (Dickerson et al, 1997;Baier et al, 2000;Smith et al, 2000), however, some studies have failed to find such a relationship, again probably due to the heterogeneity of measures used to measure insight (Cuesta et al, 2000;Kirkpatrick et al, 2000).…”

“…Studies that have examined the relationship between insight and symptoms in schizophrenia have demonstrated significant negative correlations between insight and the severity of positive symptoms (Amador et al, 1993;Mintz et al, 2003) and/or negative symptoms (Carroll et al, 1999;Smith et al, 2000;Mintz et al, 2003;Mingrone et al, 2013). Some studies have also noted a negative relationship, more specifically, between symptoms of disorganization and insight (Dickerson et al, 1997;Baier et al, 2000;Smith et al, 2000). Studies examining the associations between impaired insight and depression, not one of the principal symptoms of schizophrenia, have been less consistent, with some investigators finding no significant relationships (Amador et al, 1994), while some more recent research has found a positive relationship between the degree of insight and depressive symptoms (Kim et al, 2003;Buchy et al, 2009).…”

Bir eğitim hastanesinde yatarak tedavi gören şizofreni hastalarında tedavi uyumu, içgörü ve agresyon ilişkisi / Relationship between treatment adherence, insight and violence among schizophrenia inpatients in a training hospital sample

“…There are studies in the literature which showed a linear correlation between level of insight and positive symptoms only (35)(36)(37), and one study showing a linear correlation between level of insight and both positive and negative symptoms (38). Rossel et al (36) showed that there is a correlation between lack of insight and positive symptoms in schizophrenia and there is also a positive correlation between insight and executive functions.…”