Premorbid personality and insight in first-episode psychosis.

Background: Insight in psychosis and schizophrenia is considered a complex biopsychosocial phenomenon. Premorbid personality is regarded by some authors as part of the substrate to many psychiatric phenomena, but it is not clear if this applies to insight.

Aim: To examine longitudinal relationships between personality traits and insight dimensions in first-episode psychosis.

A taxometric analysis of schizophrenia symptoms.

Specific disorders within the psychosis syndrome have been proposed although no definitive validation of subtypes has been achieved. If there are subtypes of psychosis, latent discontinuity between clinical descriptors should be found. We applied for the first time taxometric analysis on characteristic schizophrenia symptoms.

Insight dimensions and cognitive function in psychosis: a longitudinal study.

Background: It has been reported that lack of insight is significantly associated with cognitive disturbance in schizophrenia. This study examines the longitudinal relationships between insight dimensions and cognitive performance in psychosis.

Methods: Participants were 75 consecutively admitted inpatients with schizophrenia, affective disorder with psychotic symptoms or schizoaffective disorder.

Psychopathological dimensions in first-episode psychoses. From the trunk to the branches and leaves.

Background: Dimensional frameworks for structuring psychopathology have been formulated in recent years to overcome classification problems of categorical approaches. However, few studies have addressed the dilemma of hierarchy within symptoms or dimensions in psychosis.

Methods: This study was designed to examine the hierarchical structure of psychopathological dimensions in first episode psychosis.

Are personality traits associated with cognitive disturbance in psychosis?

Objective: Personality and cognition are often considered as disparate constructs, both in normal individuals and in those with a psychosis. The goal of the present study was to analyze the relationship between dimensions of personality and cognitive performance in individuals with psychosis.

Methods: Sixty-one consecutively admitted patients with an acute psychotic episode were recruited for this study.

Effects of olanzapine and other antipsychotics on cognitive function in chronic schizophrenia: a longitudinal study.

This study aimed to determine the effect of olanzapine and other antipsychotic drugs on cognitive functions after 6months of treatment. Baseline, 3month and 6month psychopathological and cognitive evaluations were made. Thirty-eight partially responsive outpatients with DSM-IV chronic schizophrenia diagnosis were included in the study.

Psychopathological dimensions and lack of insight in schizophrenia.

The present study investigated the relationships of psychopathological dimensions of schizophrenia with Insight in a sample of 100 acute schizophrenic patients. Lack of insight was significantly correlated with disorganized, excited and negative schizophrenic dimensions but not with other Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale dimensions. In addition, when insight was assessed through a multidimensional approach, a variety of relationships with the schizophrenic dimensions were found.

Psychopathological dimensions in schizophrenia.

To test underlying latent syndromes within schizophrenic syndromes assessed by the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), a sample of 100 DSM-III-R schizophrenia patients was obtained through a semistructured interview for schizophrenia. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to evaluate the underlying symptomatological dimensions. The positive and negative construct was not confirmed by this study.

Lack of insight in schizophrenia.

A neuropsychological etiology has been suggested for lack of insight in schizophrenia patients, mainly based on frontal, right parietal, right hemisphere, or diffuse cerebral dysfunctions. The aim of this study ws to investigate the neuropsychological pathogeny of lack of insight in schizophrenia patients. We examined a sample of 40 DSM-III-R schizophrenia inpatients admitted because of a recrudescence of symptoms.