INSIGHT AND ITS RELATED FACTORS IN CHRONIC-SCHIZOPHRENIC PATIENTS - A PRELIMINARY-STUDY

Insight in the narrow sense of the meaning of self-awareness of mental illness was investigated in 57 chronic schizophrenics to examine its relation to clinical history, symptoms, intelligence, and brain morphology as measured by MRI. In addition, patients' perception or self monitoring of psychotic symptoms was analyzed. Patients with higher doses of neuroleptics and more positive, especially hostile- suspicious symptoms, but with a smaller number of hospitalizations, hardly believed their own mental illness, and underperceiving of symptoms also related to lack of insight. Moreover, MRI studies revealed that lack of insight correlated with ventricular enlargement