Temperament, character, and quality of life in patients with schizophrenia and their first-degree relatives (original) (raw)
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Temperament and Character Dimensions in Patients With Schizophrenia, Relatives, and Controls
The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 2009
Studies of patients with schizophrenia or schizophrenia spectrum disorders and general population control groups consistently show differences regarding personality dimensions. However, the profile of personality dimensions in first-degree relatives of those patients is not well understood. We used Temperament and Character Inventory to explore personality dimensions in 61 clinically stable patients with schizophrenia or schizophrenia spectrum disorders, 59 of their first-degree relatives, and 64 healthy controls. Patients scored significantly higher than controls in harm avoidance and self-transcendence and lower in self-directedness and cooperativeness. First-degree relatives showed a tendency to lower novelty seeking and self-transcendence than controls. Interpretations of these findings include the possibility that lower novelty seeking and lower self-transcendence provide a protective influence in the relatives. Further studies are needed to go into this issue in greater depth.
Quality of Life Research, 2005
This study aimed to determine which temperament factors are associated with quality of life (QOL) in schizophrenia based on a triplet design comparing patients with their non-affected siblings and healthy control subjects. Forty-seven DSM-IV clinically stable schizophrenia outpatients, 47 non-affected siblings, and 56 non-patients matched for gender and age were evaluated using the Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire and the Quality of Life Enjoyment and Life Satisfaction Questionaire. As expected, schizophrenia patients reported significantly poorer QOL in most specific domains and in general. They also revealed significantly higher scores on harm avoidance and scored lower on reward dependence, than both their siblings and controls. Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire temperament factors revealed no differences between the controls and the siblings. When differences between patients, their siblings and controls were adjusted for gender, age at examination, and education, ANOVA demonstrated that temperament factors contributed to poor satisfaction with physical health, social relationships and subjective feelings in schizophrenia patients. Harm avoidance was associated with general QOL independent of severity of psychopathology. Thus, this study suggests that temperament factors that are not necessarily part of the deterioration process of the illness are associated with the quality of life of schizophrenia patients. These and other non-illness related factors should be considered when evaluating quality of life outcomes in intervention studies.
Psychopathology and personality traits in psychotic patients and their first-degree relatives
European psychiatry : the journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists, 2009
Personality dimensions have been associated with symptoms dimensions in schizophrenic patients (SP). In this paper we study the relationships between symptoms of functional psychoses and personality dimensions in SP and their first-degree relatives (SR), in other psychotic patients (PP) and their first-degree relatives (PR), and in healthy controls in order to evaluate the possible clinical dimensionality of these disorders. Twenty-nine SP, 29 SR, 18 PP, 18 PR and 188 controls were assessed using the temperament and character inventory (TCI-R). Current symptoms were evaluated with positive and negative syndrome scale (PANSS) using the five-factor model described previously
Schizophrenia Research, 2002
Recent studies suggest that personality may in¯uence symptom expression and social functioning in schizophrenia. This study investigated the relationships between personality and symptom dimensions in schizophrenia patients. Fifty-two schizophrenia patients and 25 ®ve healthy subjects were assessed using the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI). The patients were also assessed for positive and negative symptoms using SAPS and SANS and scored according to Andreasen, N.C., Arndt, S., Alliger, R., Miller, D., Flaum, M. 1995. Symptoms of schizophrenia. Methods, meanings, and mechanisms. Arch. Gen. Psychiatry, 52, 341±351) classical three dimensional model and by the ®ve dimensional model of factor structure for positive and negative symptoms: evidence from a large heterogeneous group of psychiatric patients. Am. J. Psychiatry, 154, 371±377). Comparisons between patients and controls revealed signi®cant differences on various TCI scores consistent with a global disorganization of personality in schizophrenia involving both basic neurophysiological and potentially genetically determined traits (i.e. temperament) and developmental aspects of personality (i.e. character). Correlation analysis showed distinct associations between symptoms and personality dimensions. The results suggest that the negative and disorganized dimensions of schizophrenia are related temperamental factors, whereas the psychotic symptoms are more related to characterological abnormalities. The observed patterns of associations also underline the heterogeneity of the classical negative and positive dimensions of schizophrenia. q
Clinical psychopharmacology and neuroscience : the official scientific journal of the Korean College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 2018
Suicide is a major cause of death in patients with schizophrenia; thus, predicting and preventing suicide in patients with schizophrenia is examined in various studies. Affective temperaments which are accepted as precursors of mood disorders may be an important factor in predicting suicidality. This study investigated the relationship between affective temperaments of relatives of schizophrenia patients and suicidal thoughts and other clinical correlates of patients with schizophrenia. Patients with schizophrenia and their first degree relatives are included to the study. All of the participants were evaluated with Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV axis I disorders and relatives with active psychiatric diagnosis were excluded. Positive and Negative Symptom Scale, Clinical Global Impression Scale, Turkish version of cognitive assessment interview were administered congruently to the patients. Relatives of the patients were evaluated with Temperament Evaluation of Memphis, Pis...
Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation, 1997
The goal of this study was to examine the effects of personality traits as measured by the NEO-PI on the quality of life (QOL) of persons with schizoaffective disorder and schizophrenia. The premise of this research is that personality traits may be important in shaping one's outlook and satisfaction with life. In a prior pilot study, personality traits were measured in persons with schizoaffective disorder and schizophrenia. In this study, the relationship between QOL and specific personality domains as assessed by the NEO-PI were studied in 21 patients. Global QOL as measured by the Lehman QOL instrument was positively correlated with Extroversion (E) and Agreeableness (A), and negatively correlated with the domain of Neuroticism (N). Global satisfaction scores were not correlated with ratings of psychoticism, paranoia or depression. These data suggest that even in psychotic conditions such as schizoaffective disorder or schizophrenia, intrapsychic factors influence one's ...
Personality traits in schizophrenia and related personality disorders
Psychiatry Research, 2005
We investigated whether schizophrenia spectrum disorders share common personality characteristics or traits. Participants with a diagnosis of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder (SZ) or with a schizophrenia spectrum personality disorder (schizophrenia spectrum PD: schizoid, paranoid, and schizotypal personality disorder) were compared with non-psychiatric control subjects on the five-factor model of personality and the psychosis-proneness scales. On the five-factor personality scales, SZ subjects showed higher levels of neuroticism, and lower levels of openness, agreeableness, extraversion, and conscientiousness than control subjects. Higher scores on openness and lower scores on neuroticism distinguished schizophrenia spectrum PD from SZ. On the psychosis-proneness scales, both PD and SZ participants scored high relative to non-psychiatric control participants on magical ideation and perceptual aberration, while PD participants scored intermediate between non-psychiatric control participants and SZ on social anhedonia. Discriminant analysis indicated that schizophrenia spectrum patients could be distinguished from PDs by more severe social withdrawal and maladjustment, while subjects with PDs could be best distinguished from control subjects on the basis of odd or novel ideation and decreased conscientiousness.
Temperament and character as schizophrenia-related endophenotypes in non-psychotic siblings
Schizophrenia Research, 2008
Background-Quantitative endophenotypes are needed to better understand the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. The psychobiological model of temperament and character suggests that personality traits are heritable and regulated by brain systems influencing schizophrenia susceptibility. Thus, measures of temperament and character may serve as schizophrenia-related endophenotypes in individuals with schizophrenia and their non-psychotic siblings. Methods-Individuals with schizophrenia (n=35), their non-psychotic siblings (n=34), controls (n=63), and their siblings (n=56) participated in a study of the clinical, cognitive and neuromorphological characteristics of schizophrenia. A mixed-model approach assessed group differences on the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI). Neurocognitive deficits and psychopathology were correlated with the TCI. Configurations of TCI domains were examined using a generalized linear model. Results-Individuals with schizophrenia and their siblings had higher harm avoidance than controls and their siblings. Individuals with schizophrenia had lower self-directedness and cooperativeness, and higher self-transcendence than their non-psychotic siblings, controls, and the siblings of controls. Neurocognition was not related to temperament and character in individuals with schizophrenia or either control group. In non-psychotic siblings, self-directedness and cooperativeness were correlated with working memory and crystallized IQ. supports harm avoidance as a schizophrenia-related endophenotype. An increased risk of schizophrenia may be associated with asociality (configured as high harm avoidance and low reward dependence), schizotypy (configured as low self-directedness, low cooperativeness, and high self-transcendence), and neurocognitive deficits (poor executive functioning, working/
Personality dimensions in schizophrenia: associations with symptoms and coping
The Journal of nervous and mental disease, 2003
While individual differences in personality exist among persons with schizophrenia and predate the onset of illness, less is known about their relationship to outcome. This study examined whether levels of three personality dimensions-neuroticism, extraversion, and agreeableness-are associated with symptomatology and coping in persons with schizophrenia. Symptom, personality, and coping measures were obtained for 59 participants with schizophrenia. Personality and coping measures were obtained for 17 persons in a community comparison group. Relative to the community comparison groups, participants with schizophrenia had higher levels of neuroticism, lower levels of extraversion and agreeableness, and tended to employ more avoidant styles of coping. Participants with schizophrenia who had higher levels of neuroticism had greater positive and emotional discomfort symptoms and greater preferences for avoidant coping strategies. Participants with schizophrenia who had higher levels of a...
Subjective experience of personality dimensions in 1st degree relatives of schizophrenics
Acta bio-medica: Atenei Parmensis
An increasing number of studies suggest the usefulness of both personality features and neurocognitive vulnerability as tools for isolating phenotypes associated with susceptibility to schizophrenia, however the clinical and heuristic topicality of self-experienced vulnerability has yet to be properly recognized. Biological relatives of schizophrenic patients (because of the familial/genetic load) constitute a promising and suggestive paradigm for addressing the psychopathological relationship between personality features and subjective experience of vulnerability. The current study found that 1st degree unaffected relatives of schizophrenics exceeded normal controls in schizotypal, paranoid, and borderline dimensions, and showed an overlap in the schizoid dimension of clinical Schizotypals (i.e. Schizotypal Personality Disorder Patients). Subsequent correlation analysis showed that schizotypal and schizoid traits are linked to specific domains of self-experienced vulnerability. Clinical heuristics is discussed.