The role of insight to alcohol use disorders in insight to schizophrenia

The aims of this study were to examine the difference in the level of insight into schizophrenia between patients with schizophrenia with and without comorbid alcohol use disorders (AUDs) and to examine the association between insight into schizophrenia and insight into AUDs in patients with comorbid schizophrenia and AUDs. A total of 51 schizophrenic subjects with comorbid AUDs and 67 schizophrenic subjects without AUDs were recruited into this study. The Schedule of Assessment of Insight-Expanded Version and the Hanil Alcohol Insight Scale were used to measure subjects' insight into schizophrenia and AUDs, respectively. Multiple regression analysis models were used to examine the association between insight into schizophrenia and comorbid AUDs in all subjects, as well as the association between insight into schizophrenia and insight into AUDs in the subjects with comorbid schizophrenia and AUDs. The results indicated that schizophrenic subjects with comorbid AUDs had a lower level of insight into schizophrenia than those without AUDs. Meanwhile, among subjects with comorbid schizophrenia and AUDs, those who had a higher level of insight into AUDs had a higher level of insight into schizophrenia. Based on the results of this study, we suggest that evaluating comorbid AUDs and the level of insight into AUDs is important when evaluating the level of insight into schizophrenia among patients with comorbid schizophrenia and AUDs.