Basic Symptoms in Schizophrenic Patients

Min, Sung Kil; Kim, Yu Jin; Seon, Sang Won; Song, Hyun Joo

Abstract

OBJECTIVES
This study is to explore the frequency of basic symptoms and their relationship with current clinical variables in patients with schizophrenia.
METHODS
Eighty-eight schizophrenic patients diagnosed with SCID were interviewed with the Bonn Scale for the Assessment of Basic Symptom (BSABS) and Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS).
RESULTS
Most frequent basic symptoms were related to abnormalities in perception, cognition and stress reactivity. After controlling age effect, number of admission was correlated negatively with cluster 3 (impaired tolerance to normal stress). Onset age was correlated positively with cluster 3 and cluster 4 (disorders of emotion and affect) and total score. Scores of cluster 1 (thought, language, perception, motor disturbances), and cluster 2 (impaired bodily sensations), and total score of BSABS were significantly lower in paranoid type than residual type of schizophrenia. Scores of cluster 1, cluster 2, and total score of BSABS were correlated positively with subscales for positive and negative symptoms and general psychopathology and total score of PANSS. Cluster 3 was correlated positively only with general psychopathology score and cluster 4 with both positive symptoms and general psychopathology score.
CONCLUSION
These findings suggest that certain basic symptoms aggregate significantly in schizophrenia, especially in paranoid type schizophrenia and that systemic evaluation of basic symptoms can be used for the prediction of onset and progress of schizophrenia.