Insight and psychosis

Article Abstract:

The concept of insight into psychosis has been examined based on a review of phenomenology (descriptive psychology), clinical research, and experimental neuropsychology. It is posited that insight is a function of three distinct but overlapping dimensions: (1) the recognition that one has a mental illness; (2) the ability to recognize that certain mental experiences (such as delusions and hallucinations) are pathological; and (3) treatment compliance. While it is commonly assumed that insight aids compliance, there are many patients who have no insight into their illness, but who still are able to accept medication regiments and derive benefit from them. Thus, it is thought that drug compliance and illness or illness-symptom awareness should be regarded as separate but overlapping constructs which contribute to insight. Neuropsychology is also considered as it relates to the physiological mechanisms of insight. Recognition that one has a mental illness is a type of self-awareness or self-concern - two faculties that are often lost after frontal lobe damage. Anosognosia (lack of awareness of disease) can result from lesions in the right hemisphere (i.e. parietal lobe). Other models in neuropsychology, such as the split brain model (when connective pathways between hemispheres are severed) also offer an explanatory model for 'knowing' and 'not knowing', and for dual awareness (when the cognitive contents of one brain hemisphere are unavailable to the other). A measure for assessing insight in psychosis is offered in the form of a printed questionnaire that rates aspects of the three dimensions of insight. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Psychological aspects, Care and treatment, Research, Analysis, Psychoses, Psychotic disorders, Insight, Insight in psychotherapy, Psychotherapeutic insight

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Gender, parity and the prevalence of minor affective disorder

Article Abstract:

The study of depressive disorders has yielded many controversies and inconsistent findings. One finding that has been consistent, however, is that as a group, women tend to have a higher rate of depression than men. It has been speculated that the reasons for this difference are due to social factors; in particular, it has been found that married women tend to have a propensity for becoming depressed. This might be accounted for by the finding that married women with children have a higher rate of depression than women, married or not, without children. It has been difficult to interpret this finding, however. To test the hypothesis that bearing children increases a women's risk of developing depressive symptoms, data were obtained from a survey of the general population including measures of psychiatric symptoms and sociodemographic factors. The subjects had relatively minor symptoms of depression or anxiety and few were treated psychiatrically for their symptoms. This suggests that the biological factors sometimes seen in more severe disorders would not be a confounding variable. It was found that being a parent does increase the likelihood that women will display depressive symptoms. The effect appears to be unrelated to the role of parenting itself. These results, however, can not be distinguished from the effect of marriage, so it is more correct to say that married women are more prone to depression than unmarried women or men, than to say that mothers are more prone. Marriage, parent-status, and gender seem to be important and independent factors in the incidence of minor symptoms of depression. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Social aspects, Causes of, Demographic aspects, Depression, Mental, Depression (Mood disorder), Affective disorders, Mood disorders

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