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Structure of schizophrenic symptomatology and its changes over time: prospective factor‐analytical study
Author(s) -
Salokangas R. K. R.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
acta psychiatrica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.849
H-Index - 146
eISSN - 1600-0447
pISSN - 0001-690X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0447.1997.tb00370.x
Subject(s) - psychology , psychopathology , psychosis , schizophrenia (object oriented programming) , psychomotor learning , positive and negative syndrome scale , psychiatry , catatonia , clinical psychology , dimension (graph theory) , developmental psychology , cognition , mathematics , pure mathematics
A representative sample of 156 new schizophrenic patients (DSM‐III) were examined at the time of their first treatment contact for psychosis, and reexamined 2 and 5 years thereafter. The symptom variables, assessed by the Comprehensive Psychopathological Rating Scale (CPRS), were factored and compared with each other. The following major dimensions were found: (i) a fairly stable negative dimension with affective and speech impoverishment and withdrawal; (ii) a delusional dimension; (iii) hallucinatory dimensions; (iv) a disorganization dimension; and (v) a depressive dimension with unreal experiences. The negative dimension was more prevalent in unmarried patients. Neither the two‐syndrome model of negative and positive symptoms nor the three‐syndrome model of psychomotor poverty, disorganization and reality distortion proved to be satisfactory. In a representative sample of schizophrenic patients, the syndrome structure described by symptom dimensions appears to be more complex and varies considerably according to the duration of the illness.