P-1277 - Insight and Self Esteem in Patients With Schizophrenia

Abstract

Insight presents patient's awareness of several attributes: recognizing that she/he is suffering from a mental illness, that the symptoms are pathological, that he/she needs treatment and that the cause or the source of their symptoms is an illness. Poor insight is linked to poorer treatment adherence, poorer clinical outcome and with social dysfunction. Greater insight is often associated with dysphoria and lower self esteem. The acceptance of the fact that one suffer from schizophrenia depends on the meanings of schizophrenia for the person. We study insight and level of self esteem in patients with schizophrenia. The study is done at Psychiatric Clinic, University of Nish. Thirty patients, 16 males and 14 females, average age of 38.6 years, with diagnosis of schizophrenia are included in the study. For determing insight we use The Beck Cognitive Insight Scale (BCIS) - a self report instrument that focuses on self reflectivenes about unusual experiences, capacity to correct erroneous judgment and certainty about mistaken judgments. It is 15-item, 4 point Likert scale with two sets of items. The Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale (SEC) is used to measure self-esteem. It is 10-item, 4 point Likert scale. Scores range from 10 to 40 with higher scores indicating higher self-esteem. Our results show mean value on BCIS 1.74, and 27.6 on SEC. Intellectual insight is the first step in patient's awareness of mental illness and it is accompanied with lower scores on the self eseem scale.