Background: Anomalous self-experiences (ASEs) aggregate in schizophrenia spectrum disorders, but the relationship between ASEs, and depression has been studied to a limited extent. Lower self-esteem has been shown to be associated with depression in early psychosis. Our hypothesis is that ASEs in early phases of schizophrenia are linked to lower levels of self-esteem, which in turn is associate...

background: knowledge is limited concerning the role of temperament and character factors on schizophrenia. recent studies suggest that dimensions of temperament and character influence symptoms and functions in schizophrenia.  the purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between temperament and character with positive and negative symptoms in patients with schizophrenia. methods...

BACKGROUND It has been proposed that the relationship between childhood trauma and hallucinations can be explained by dissociative processes. The present study examined whether the effect of childhood trauma on hallucination-proneness is mediated by dissociative tendencies. In addition, the influence of dissociative symptoms on a cognitive process believed to underlie hallucinatory experiences ...

BACKGROUND Having friends is associated with more favourable clinical outcomes and a higher quality of life in mental disorders. Patients with schizophrenia have fewer friends than other mentally ill patients. No large scale studies have evaluated so far what symptom dimensions of schizophrenia are associated with the lack of friendships. METHODS Data from four multi-centre studies on outpati...

The rationale, research literature, and proposed changes to the dissociative disorders and conversion disorder in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) are presented. Dissociative identity disorder will include reference to possession as well as identity fragmentation, to make the disorder more applicable to culturally diverse situations. Dissoci...

Objective: This study investigates if participants diagnosed with psychiatric disorders report more traumatic life events and score higher on dissociative symptoms than participants without psychiatric disorders. Method: A structured interview regarding traumatic life events and the German version of the Dissociative Experience Scale was administered to 105 psychiatric patients, subdivided into...

Three cases of dissociative disorder presenting with catatonia are described. Catatonia is generally believed to be associated with schizophrenia. However, many other conditions are also known to cause catatonia. A brief review of literature is provided. All the cases improved rapidly with a few ECTs. This report aims to highlight the presentation of dissociative disorders with catatonia. It al...

OBJECTIVE This study sought to identify similarities and differences in symptom characteristics at initial presentation of first psychotic episodes in schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and unipolar depression. METHODS The Structured Interview for DSM-IV (SCID) and Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) were administered to consecutive admission study-eligible patients (n=101) presenting f...