Body image, symptoms and insight in chronic schizophrenia.

Historically, schizophrenics' body image problems were regarded as related particularly to delusions and hallucinations. However, during the 1980s, the predominant view of the phenomenology of the disorder broadened to include negative symptoms; deviations in schizophrenics' body image underlie various behaviors or allegations concerning the body and should be refocused. The present study attempted to detect body image deviations in chronic schizophrenia using the Body Image Questionnaire (BIQ), which comprises three hypothetical components (anatomical, functional and other psychological components), and to clarify their related clinical characteristics in symptoms and insight.