Relationship Between Self -Concept Clarity, and Positive and Negative Symptoms among Patients with Schizophrenia

Abstract

Background: Self-concept clarity indicates the extent to which beliefs about the self are clearly and confidently defined, internally consistent, and stable over time. Disturbances in the perception of self are thought to be central to the development of psychosis. A growing body of research reflects that the incoherence or disorganization in sense of self in schizophrenia may mask individuals from perceiving reality accurately and perceive themselves as if they lost contact to themselves and spent a lot of time wondering about the kind of person they are. Objective: So the aim of this study was to assess the self- concept clarity, as well as positive and negative symptoms among patients with schizophrenia. And, to identify the relationship between self- concept clarity and both positive and negative symptoms among patients with schizophrenia. Settings: The study was conducted at EL-Maamoura Hospital for Psychiatric Medicine, in Alexandria, Egypt. Subjects: the data was collected from 200 in patients with schizophrenia . Tools: three tools were used to collect the date; socio-demographic and clinical structured interview schedule , The Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS-version 4.0) and the Self-Concept Clarity Scale . Results: Findings of the present study revealed that around half of the studied sample demonstrated low self-concept clarity (50.5%). Whereas, 38.5% of the studied subjects had moderate self-concept clarity. Moreover, a statistically significant correlations were found between self-concept clarity in relation to positive and negative symptoms among the studied subjects. (r s = 0.242, P<0.001, and r s = 0.225, P=0.001, respectively). The overall brief psychiatric rating scale (BPRS) was proved to be the independent predictor of the self-concept clarity Conclusion : The present study concluded that the studied subjects demonstrated low self-concept, and positive and negative symptoms was positively correlated with self-concept clarity . Recommendations : psychoeducational program for low concept clarity when dealing with patient with schizophrenia is need to develop clear, consistent and stable sense of self which would directly foster patients’ wellbeing and help in integration into the community.