Ψυχάγειν Καβάλα Ψυχοθεραπεία

Insight into psychosis is correlated with depression in an outpatient sample. Poster presentation at 3^rd International Congress on Neurobiology, Psychopharmacology & Treatment Guidance, Thessaloniki, Greece.

Background: The association of insight into psychosis (awareness of illness) with clinical vari­ables has long been studied. Most studies reveal that the level of insight is negatively correlated with psychotic symptomatology and positively correlated with depression and suicide attempts. The aim of this study was to test this finding in Greek patients.

Materials and methods: 43 psychotic outpatients (30 men and 13 women}, being followed up, took part in the study after being informed and accepted to go through the investigation. Bipolar patients were excluded. Their mean age was 40.7 and the mean duration of illness was 11.2 years. All of them were under treatment. We used the PANSS scale for assessing the psychopathology, the SAI-E questionnaire to assess the insight, and the MADRS for evaluating depression. All these scales are adapted to Greek population. Statistical analysis via SPSS 15.

Results: Pearson correlation between SAI-E and MADRS yielded r= 0.654 that was statistically significant at 0.01 fevel. SAi-E and PANSS correlation estimated at r= – 0.551, which was also significant at 0.01 level. Correlation between SAI-E and age was not significant (r=0.010). Τ -test of SAI-E, PANSS and MADRS between gender groups proved not significant. Linear regression analysis of SAI-E as depended variable and MADRS score as independed, proved r2=0.303. Line­ar Regression between SAI-E and PANSS was 0.429. Multiple regression between SAI-E, MADRS and PANSS was R=0.703, witch means that 70% of the totai variance of SAI-E score depends on MADRS and PANSS.

Conclusions: Considering the rather small sample, our survey confirms the positive correlation of insight with depression and the negative one with psychopathology. In our sample 70% of the variance of SAI-E depended on depression and psychopathology. This contributes to the defense-mechanism hypothesis of insight into illness.

References:

1. l.”Early insight predicts depression and attempted suicide after 4 years in first-episode schizophrenia and schizophreniform disorder” Crumlish Ν et al, Acta Psychiatr Scand 2005 Dec;112(6): 449-55
2. “The association of insight with psychotic symptoms, depression, and cognition in early psychosis: a 3-year follow-up” Saeedi Η et al, Schizophr Res. 2007 Jan; 89(1-3): 123-8.