PURPOSE: This study was done to uncover the nature of hope experienced by clients with chronic schizophrenia. METHOD: A phenomenological approach developed by Van Manen was adopted. Data was collected from intensive interviews on 7 clients with chronic schizophrenia and the expatients' biographies and arts. A phenomenological reflection was done in terms of the four life world existentials. RESULT: Corporeality: Perceiving the body feeling better, proudness of self, accepting their own ill body and transcending the limitation of the body, expressing self, and staying within the boundary of a healthy body were disclosed as the body's experience of hope. Spatiality :A place with safety, freedom, peace, and sharing was the space of hope. Temporality :The essential experience of time with hope was the continuity of moving forward amid cycling and moments being filled up with something. Relationality : Connecting with someone, having someone who is dependable, understandable and exchanging interest and love were identified as the relationships of hope with others. CONCLUSION: The results of this study show that chronic schizophrenic patients always strive hard to keep hope and they really need someone who can support them.
*Schizophrenic Psychology ; Male ; Humans ; Female ; *Emotions ; Chronic Disease ; Affect ; Adult

Adult ; Humans ; Male ; Prognosis ; Schizophrenia ; diagnosis ; therapy ; Schizophrenic Psychology

OBJECTIVE: To explore the relevance between writing characteristic and therapeutic effect in schizophrenia and to discuss the influence of aggressive behavior on writing characteristic. METHODS: Recoding the casual and fixed writing in admission, one week, two weeks, four weeks, eight weeks after treatment and rating Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and Modified Overt Aggression Scale (MOAS). Choosing two characteristics, "relationship between font and grid lines" and "having big strokes or not", and comparing before and after treatment. RESULTS: Eight weeks after treatment, the score of PANSS decreased. The condition of patients and the writing characteristic improved as well. The differences of writing characteristics were statistically significant in patients with aggressive behavior before and after treatment (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION The writing characteristic has relation with therapeutic effects and improved with therapeutic effects in aggressive patients.
Aggression ; Antipsychotic Agents ; Humans ; Schizophrenia/therapy* ; Schizophrenic Psychology ; Writing

OBJECTIVES: To explore the characteristics of schizophrenia patients' homicide behaviors and the influences of the assessments of criminal capacity. METHODS: Indicators such as demographic and clinical data, characteristics of criminal behaviors and criminal capacity from the suspects whom were diagnosed by forensic psychiatry as schizophrenia （n=110） and normal mental （n=70） with homicide behavior, were collected by self-made investigation form and compared. The influences of the assessments of criminal capacity on the suspects diagnosed as schizophrenia were also analyzed using logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: There were no significant statistical differences between the schizophrenic group and the normal mental group concerning age, gender, education and marital status （P>0.05）. There were significant statistical differences between the two groups concerning thought disorder, emotion state and social function before crime （P<0.05） and there were significant statistical differences in some characteristics of the case such as aggressive history （P<0.05）, cue, trigger, plan, criminal incentives, object of crime, circumstance cognition and self-protection （P<0.05）. Multivariate logistic regression analysis suggested that thought disorder, emotion state, social function, criminal incentives, plan and self-protection before crime of the schizophrenic group were positively correlated with the criminal capacity （P<0.05）. CONCLUSIONS The relevant influences of psychopathology and crime characteristics should be considered comprehensively for improving the accuracy of the criminal capacity evaluation on the suspects diagnosed as schizophrenia with homicide behavior.
Aggression/psychology* ; Crime ; Criminals ; Forensic Psychiatry ; Homicide/psychology* ; Humans ; Motivation ; Schizophrenia/diagnosis* ; Schizophrenic Psychology

To explore whether or not patients with schizophrenia display a more profound impairment of negative emotion processing, we assessed the implicit evaluation of positive and negative emotional stimuli. Twenty patients with schizophrenia (9 paranoid, 11 non-paranoid) and 22 normal controls were instructed to classify emotional pictures according to the intrinsic valence if the pictures were black and white. If the stimuli were color-filtered, participants were instructed to press the positive/negative response key according to the extrinsic valence (assigned valence of color). The error rates of the color-filtered stimuli were used as dependent measures. Normal controls made more errors on trials of the positive pictures when the correct response was the negative response key than when the correct response was the positive response key. The reverse was true on trials of the negative pictures. Patients with schizophrenia, especially paranoid schizophrenia, committed more errors in trials of the positive pictures when the correct response key was the negative response key. However, the reverse was not true on trials of the negative pictures. These findings suggest that patients with paranoid schizophrenia might suffer from an impaired ability to evaluate negative emotions and have a loosening of association within their negative emotional networks.
Visual Perception ; *Schizophrenic Psychology ; Schizophrenia, Paranoid/*physiopathology/*psychology ; Mental Processes ; Male ; Humans ; Female ; *Emotions ; *Affect ; Adult

To explore whether or not patients with schizophrenia display a more profound impairment of negative emotion processing, we assessed the implicit evaluation of positive and negative emotional stimuli. Twenty patients with schizophrenia (9 paranoid, 11 non-paranoid) and 22 normal controls were instructed to classify emotional pictures according to the intrinsic valence if the pictures were black and white. If the stimuli were color-filtered, participants were instructed to press the positive/negative response key according to the extrinsic valence (assigned valence of color). The error rates of the color-filtered stimuli were used as dependent measures. Normal controls made more errors on trials of the positive pictures when the correct response was the negative response key than when the correct response was the positive response key. The reverse was true on trials of the negative pictures. Patients with schizophrenia, especially paranoid schizophrenia, committed more errors in trials of the positive pictures when the correct response key was the negative response key. However, the reverse was not true on trials of the negative pictures. These findings suggest that patients with paranoid schizophrenia might suffer from an impaired ability to evaluate negative emotions and have a loosening of association within their negative emotional networks.
Visual Perception ; *Schizophrenic Psychology ; Schizophrenia, Paranoid/*physiopathology/*psychology ; Mental Processes ; Male ; Humans ; Female ; *Emotions ; *Affect ; Adult

Bipolar patients often experience subjective symptoms even if they do not have active psychotic symptoms in their euthymic state. Most studies about subjective symptoms are conducted in schizophrenia, and there are few studies involving bipolar patients. We examined the nature of the subjective symptoms of bipolar patients in their euthymic state, and we also compared it to that of schizophrenia and normal control. Thirty bipolar patients, 25 patients with schizophrenia, and 21 normal control subjects were included. Subjective symptoms were assessed using the Korean version of the Frankfurter Beschwerde Fragebogen (K-FBF) and the Symptom Check List 90-R (SCL90-R). Euthymic state was confirmed by assessing objective psychopathology with the Positive and Negative Syndrome scale of Schizophrenia (PANSS), the Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS), and the Montgomery Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS). K-FBF score was significantly higher in bipolar patients than in normal controls, but similar to that in schizophrenia patients (F=5.86, p=0.004, R(2)=2033.6). In contrast, SCL90-R scores did not differ significantly among the three groups. Euthymic bipolar patients experience subjective symptoms that are more confined to cognitive domain. This finding supports the hypothesis that subtle cognitive impairments persists in euthymic bipolar patients.
Adult ; Bipolar Disorder/*psychology ; Cognition Disorders/etiology ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Schizophrenic Psychology

OBJECTIVE: To systematically review and analyze literature on episodes of aggression in psychiatric wards and to determine the coping and preventive strategies employed to deal with aggression of patients with schizophrenia. METHODS: We used the key words such as "schizophrenia" and "aggression" to collect literature citations, which were published between July 1997 and November 2011, by searching databases such as the Chinese Journal Full-text Database (CJFD). The literature reports of aggression by patients with schizophrenia were surveyed by computer-assisted searches, scanning of reference lists, and manual search of relevant journals. We analyzed the reports of episodes of aggression in psychiatric wards. RESULTS: Prevalence of aggression in psychiatric wards was reported to range from 9.1% (95% CI: 6.3 to 11.9) to 49.6% (95% CI: 41.1 to 58.1), with most reports in the range of 20% to 40% (mean 28.0%). The aggressive behavior often occurred in special groups and typically bore a close relationship with the patient's personal qualities, social environment, or psychiatric symptoms. The aggressive behaviors can be attributed to a lack of standardized assessments and intervention instruments. CONCLUSION There is a high risk of aggression in Chinese inpatients with schizophrenia, and it is urgent to establish the scientific, standardized, operational systems for assessing and treating the aggression of these patients.
Adult ; Aggression ; psychology ; China ; epidemiology ; Female ; Humans ; Inpatients ; psychology ; Male ; Schizophrenia ; epidemiology ; Schizophrenic Psychology ; Violence ; psychology ; statistics & numerical data

PURPOSE: This research investigated the daily experiences of patients' lives to develop a formal theory that explains the lives of schizophrenic patients. METHOD: A grounded theory method(Strauss & Corbin, 1998) guided the data collection and analysis. Thirteen patients who were diagnosed with schizophrenia in regional communities participated. RESULT: The experiences of chronic schizophrenic patients are defined as "escaping from a fallen mine" comparing their suffering to that of entrapped miners trying to free themselves from a collapsed mine tunnel with much difficulty and without hope. In observing participant's time lines of having lived with chronic schizophrenia, it advances with "surrender", "collapse", "reaching out", "rising", "preparing to spring up", and "starting anew". CONCLUSION: The results of this study indicate that the experience of a chronic schizophrenic patient is like that of a miner caught under a fallen mine channel, who, without external help cannot escape the depths of the mine, but at the same time must have conviction and hope of rescue and avert fear to cooperate with outside help. The result indicates that family members, doctors and nurses as well as an institute's persistent and active support is most critical for the patient's adjustment to social life.
Social Support ; *Schizophrenic Psychology ; Middle Aged ; Male ; Humans ; Female ; Fear ; Chronic Disease ; Adult

The largely consistent columnar circuitry observed throughout the cortex may serve to continuously predict bottom-up activation based on invariant memories. This "memory-prediction" function is essential to efficient and accurate perception. Many of the defined cognitive deficits associated with schizophrenia suggest a breakdown of memory-prediction function. As deficits in memory-prediction function are proposed to lie more proximal to the biological causes of schizophrenia than deficits in standard cognitive constructs, tests that more directly probe memory-prediction function may be especially sensitive predictors of conversion in individuals at high-risk for schizophrenia. In this article, we review the conceptual basis for this hypothesis, and outline how it may be tested with specific cognitive paradigms. The accurate identification of cognitive processes that precede the onset of psychosis will not only be useful for clinicians to predict which young people are at greatest risk for schizophrenia, but will also help determine the neurobiology of psychosis onset, thus leading to new and effective treatments for preventing schizophrenia and other psychoses.
Cognition Disorders ; Humans ; Memory ; Neuropsychological Tests ; Predictive Value of Tests ; Risk Assessment ; Schizophrenia ; etiology ; physiopathology ; Schizophrenic Psychology