Reported childhood trauma and suicide attempts in schizophrenic patients

Childhood traumas are associated with suicidal behavior but this aspect has not been examined in relation to schizophrenia. In this study, 50 chronic schizophrenic patients who had attempted suicide were compared with 50 chronic schizophrenic patients who had never attempted suicide for their scores on the 34-item Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ). It was found that schizophrenics who had attempted suicide reported significantly higher CTQ scores for emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional neglect, and physical neglect than schizophrenics who had never attempted suicide. Therefore, childhood trauma may be a risk factor predisposing schizophrenic patients to attempt suicide.     

The Draw-A-Person Test and Process-Reactive Schizophrenia

The Draw-A-Pcrson test was administered to three matched groups of 32 male Ss each: reactive schizophrenics, process schizophrenics, and normal control subjects. Patients were rated for prognosis using the Premorbid Subscale of the Phillips Scale. Drawings were rated by two judges on 80 diagnostic signs culled from the literature. No signs were found to significantly differentiate reactive and process schizophrenics, and only three signs significantly differentiated normals from schizophrenics. It was concluded that a sign approach to the DAP is insensitive to the reaction-process dimension of schizophrenia, and of only limited value in differentiating between normals and schizophrenics in general.     

Gender, social competence, and symptomatology in schizophrenia: a longitudinal analysis

The relationship between gender and social skill measured by performance on a role play test was examined in a sample of 57 schizophrenics, 33 affective disorder patients, and 20 nonpatient controls. Female schizophrenics were more skilled than male schizophrenics, but no gender differences were present in the affective patients or the controls. Longitudinal analyses conducted on the schizophrenic group indicated that the superior social skill of women was stable over the year following a symptom exacerbation. Symptoms and social adjustment improved for both men and women over the year, but did not differ according to gender. The implications of the results for gender differences in the long-term outcome of schizophrenia are discussed.     

Psychometric detection of schizotypy: perceptual aberration and physical anhedonia in relatives of schizophrenics.

We administered scales of Perceptual Aberration (PERAB) and Physical Anhedonia (PHYSAN), traits that may be related to risk for schizophrenia, to 54 schizophrenics, 146 of their first-degree relatives (evaluated for schizophrenia-related disorders), and 178 normal subjects (screened for psychotic disorders in them or their relatives). For both scales, there was a significant effect of group membership. For the PERAB scale, the schizophrenics had higher scores than the normal subjects, who had higher scores than the relatives. For the PHYSAN scale, schizophrenics had higher scores than their relatives, who had higher scores than the normal subjects. Patterns of familial correlations also suggested that physical anhedonia, but not perceptual aberration, may be familial among schizophrenics and their relatives. The PHYSAN scale, but not the PERAB one, may be a useful indicator of liability for schizophrenia among the relatives of affected probands.     

Schizophrenic performance on form E of Cattell's 16PF test.

Form E of Cattell's 16PF test was administered to 515 hospitalized schizophrenics. This sample was compared to Cattell's standardization population for both raw scores and sten scores. Comparisons were made between males and females, acute patients and chronic patients, and amongst three categories of schizophrenia (paranoid, undifferentiated, schizo-affectives). The results indicate that the "schizophrenic profile," reported in previous research with Form A, did not obtain expected differentiations among schizophrenic categories. The question of the usefulness of Form E in diagnosing schizophrenia was raised.     

Self-repair in dialogues of schizophrenics: effects of hallucinations and negative symptoms.

This paper concerns the discourse features of verbal hallucinations and negative symptoms of schizophrenia. A total of 46 schizophrenics, varying in verbal hallucination and in negative symptoms status, and 22 controls were tested on the Reporter Test. The frequency with which they issued inadequate instructions, attempted to repair the inadequacies, and the success of repairs were compared. We observed that schizophrenics, on the whole, issued more wrong and incomplete instructions. This was in part related to their worse working memory, but it was not affected by verbal hallucinations or negative symptoms. We observed, further, that schizophrenics had no particular problems monitoring messages for inadequacies. We did find, however, that schizophrenics with verbal hallucinations had a specific problem with self-repairing wrong instructions. We interpret these results in the framework of Hoffman's (1986b) plan disruption-based model of verbal hallucinations; the Frith (1987) and Frith and Done (1988) internal monitoring model of positive and negative symptoms; and finally Frith and Frith's (1990) model of negative and positive schizophrenia and we use the results to specify the models.     

Differing lateralized perceptual-motor patterns in schizophrenic and non-psychotic children

A neuropsychological assessment stressing lateralized perceptual-motor and cognitive abilities was administered to two groups of hospitalized child and adolescent psychiatric patients, 25 schizophrenics and 25 non-psychotics. The findings included an increased incidence of crossed eye-hand dominance in schizophrenics, poorer tactile sensory function in the right hands of schizophrenics than in the left hands, and lower Vocabulary and Similarities WISC subtest scores than Block Design and Object Assembly scores for schizophrenics. Right-left confusion was associated with finger agnosia for schizophrenics. The results supported the hypothesis that there may be left-hemisphere dysfunction in schizophrenia; however, no single pattern of dysfunction was apparent.     

Responses of Blind and Seeing Adolescents to a Neurotic Inventory

In the present study hypotheses derived from developmental-psychoanalytic and role theories of sex-role identification were tested in father-dominant and mother-dominant schizophrenic and normally functioning adult male Ss (n = 15 in each group). Parental dominance and sex-role identification were measured by a battery of traditional paper-and-pencil tests. It was found that (a) father-dominant and mother-dominant schizophrenics scored significantly lower (p < .01) than their respective normally functioning counterparts; (b) no significant differences existed between father-dominant and mother-dominant schizophrenics; and (c) irrespective of parental dominance, schizophrenics scored significantly lower (p < .01) than normally functioning Ss in regard to sex-role identification. These findings were interpreted to support a psychodynamic theory of schizophrenia emphasizing the importance of dependence and security needs, while they failed to support role-theory interpretations of the process of sex-role identification.     

Temperament and character inventory in homicidal, nonaddicted paranoid schizophrenic patients: a preliminary study

This study assessed the personalities of 13 murderer schizophrenics using Cloninger's Temperament and Character Inventory, controlling different factors such as institution, treatment, detention or loss of liberty, and can discriminate between schizophrenic patients involved in homicide, schizophrenics with no past violent behavior, paranoiac murderers, and imprisoned murderers with no psychiatric history. Results show significantly that murderer schizophrenics had significantly higher scores on the subscale, Self-transcendence, than other groups, which suggests that Self-transcendence as measured may be an aggravating factor for schizophrenia and may be found in the personality of schizophrenic subjects who performed homicidal acts. This dimension constitutes a way and an additional element for diagnosis not available with the DSM-IV criteria. It may help understanding and predicting violent behavior among schizophrenic patients.     

A comparison between the Grid Test of Schizophrenic Thought Disorder and diagnostic psychologicaI testing

Abstract.— Bannister and Fransella's Grid Test of Schizophrenic Thought Disorder based on Personal Construct Theory and the concept of "loosened construing", as measurable in the scores of Intensity and Consistency between intercorrelations, has been applied to a Scandinavian sample of psychiatric patients. The validity of the test was illustrated, and a significant difference was found between a group of schizophrenics and schizophrenic borderline states and a group without schizophrenic thought disorders. The Grid Test scores were found to agree with thought disorder manifestations as evaluated in qualitative terms on the basis of cognitive and projective tests, but they did not differentiate between developmental levels of thinking corresponding to con-creteness in organic impairment versus diffuseness in schizophrenia. Thus, the concept of "loosened construing" as applied in this thought disorder test seems too unspecific.     

Personality Trait Characteristics in Relation to Neuropsychological Dysfunction in Schizophrenia and Depression

Knowledge of the personality trait and psychopathology variables that differentiate neuropsychologically impaired and nonimpaired psychiatric patients has been limited relative to the study of higher cortical functions. This study reports findings from the Milton Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI) developed by Millon (1982) in a sample of hospitalized schizophrenics and depressives who also received the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery. The principal findings indicate that neuropsychological dysfunction may be related to substance abuse, including its underlying personality dimensions, in schizophrenia, but only modest support is indicated for the construct of negative symptoms in schizophrenics with neuropsychological dysfunction. Further, the findings do not support the view that psychosis is a characteristic feature of depressives with impaired neuropsychological performance.     

INTERMITTENT REGRESSIONS IN A SERIAL AFTERIMAGE EXPERIMENT AS SIGNS OF SCHIZOPHRENIA

S mith G. J. W., R uuth E., F ranzén G. & S jöholm L. Intermittent regressions in a serial afterimage experiment as signs of schizophrenia. Scand. J. Psychol ., 1972 , 13 , 27 33.—A group of 35 young patients suspected of schizophrenia were tested in a serial afterimage (AI) experiment and were also rated on the Rockland-Pollin scale. Subjects with high psychotic scores showed one or more regressions to immature (size-constant, positive, physiognomic) images in their Al serials, images typical of children who cannot clearly distinguish their Ails as subjective phenomena distinct from the outside world. The Al test thus indicates schizophrenics to be characterized by intermittent withdrawal into a world of experiencing the self and non-self as not clearly distinguished. Regressions were rare in two control groups.     

Patterns of transactional style deviance in the TAT's of parents of schizophrenics

Parents of schizophrenics show more transactional style deviance in diverse situations than do other parents. In a sample of families of nonschizophrenic outpatient adolescents, a manual for scoring such deviance on stories told for seven TAT cards was developed. This scoring system was shown to be composed of six meaningful factors. When this system was applied to the TAT's of parents of offspring with a variety of psychiatric diagnoses, a total deviance score did not discriminate among the parents. High scores on two particular factors were found only in parents of hospitalized schizophrenics, but four factors were nondiscriminating. Parents of young adults with schizophrenia spectrum disorders were more likely to show high scores on at least one of these six factors than other parents. Considering the scores of mothers and fathers together yielded the best discrimination of parents of schizophrenia spectrum disorders from other parents.     

Body Image Disturbance in Schizophrenia: A Study of Arms and Feet

This study investigated the significance of omitting arms/hands and legs/feet on the Draw-A-Person Test (DAP) in 128 hospitalized schizophrenic and 104 normally functioning adult males. The DAP was administered according to Machover's instructions, and the data were analyzed by chi-square tests. It was found that schizophrenics demonstrated significantly more omissions of arms/hands and legs/feet than the normals. These findings were interpreted to indicate body image disturbance in schizophrenia and were related to Schilder's and Federn's theories of the disorder emphasizing an impairment of ego boundaries.     

ABSTRACTS

This is one of a series of research studies comparing parents and siblings of 30 schizophrenics with 30 neurotics. The parents of schizophrenics had a greater incidence of schizophrenia, personality disorders, and borderline disorders than did the normals. The siblings of the schizophrenics showed more varied disturbance than the parents. Of 30 schizophrenic families, 14 were "schizmatic" and 7 were "skewed"; 10 families were chaotic, 11 were rigid, 6 showed both patterns, and three were atypical. The families from which schizophrenics come are usually disturbed both genetically and environmentally.