Correlates of coping styles in psychotic illness -- An extension study

Coping/recovery styles of integration and sealing over, reflecting the patient's dealing with his or her psychotic illness, influence the treatment adherence and, perhaps, the therapy outcome. Knowledge of these styles' potential clinical and personality correlates is so far limited. A semi-structured interview and self-rating questionnaires were used to assess 64 inpatients recovering from an acute episode of a schizophrenia spectrum disorder with regard to the prevailing coping/recovery style, depressive and negative syndromes, global functioning, locus of control and personality characteristics of novelty seeking, harm avoidance, and reward dependence. A significant positive correlation was found between coping/recovery style of sealing over and both negative syndrome and external control (by powerful others) orientation; a significant negative correlation was found between sealing over and good global functioning. The final multivariate model comprised negative syndrome, global functioning and a personality characteristic of reward dependence; together these three variables explained 44% of the coping/recovery style variance. Thus, in patients with disorders in the schizophrenia spectrum, the inclination towards sealing over is positively correlated with the higher degree of the overall severity of psychiatric disturbance and it is closely associated with a negative syndrome. In contrast, both the degree of depression and personality characteristics measured do not seem to play an important role with regard to the prevailing coping/recovery style of integration and sealing over.