Sense of Self in Adolescents at Risk of Schizophrenia
Date Issued
2011
Date
2011
Author(s)
Liu, Yu-han
Abstract
Self-disturbance is a disturbance caused by the alteration of the basic sense of self. It may be the core feature of schizophrenia and its prodrome. The purpose of the study was to explore the details of self-disturbance in individuals of different risk levels of schizophrenia, and to examine whether self-disturbance can be predictive to psychosis. A prospective study was designed on participants recruited by referrals from a community-based population. Through clinical interviews by experienced psychiatrists, three pre-psychotic risk groups were established: an ultra-high risk group (UHR; n = 52), an intermediate-risk group (IRG; n = 41), and a marginal-risk group (MRG; n = 44). Also 48 participants with first-episode psychosis (FEP) and 139 healthy controls (NC group) were recruited as comparison. All participants were examine with Sense of Self Scale (SOS) to assess the severity of their self-disturbance, and the scale of appraisal of appearance and self-confidence to assess their subjective appraisal of the past, present and ideal appearance and self-confidence. In the two-year follow-up, the FEP and UHR were followed twice a year, and the rest once a year. Results revealed that self-disturbance could discriminate the healthy control and clinical groups (i.e. risk groups and first-episode group). And no matter observed within or between groups, the trend of alteration in self-disturbance existed as that its severity increased as risk level increased; however, when participants converted to psychosis, the severity of self-disturbance decreased. Besides, one subscale of sense of self and discrepancy between appraisal of present and past appearance were predictive to the full-blown of psychosis.
Subjects
prodrome
schizophrenia
self-disturbance
anomalous self-experience
ultra-high risk
Type
thesis
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