[Assessment of the distorted video image of the body by schizophrenic patients]

A method is described using a modified video-image with a continuous image distortion of +/- 45%. By turning a potentiometer-dial the self-estimation of one's own body image can be adjusted. A sample of 108 schizophrenic patients assessed their own body-image as 12% too thin when compared with a matched control group of healthy volunteers (5.8%). This effect of estimating one's body proportions as too thin was shown to be exclusively caused by the female patients. In addition, the schizophrenic patients assessed their faces as significantly thinner than did the controls. The self-estimations made by different diagnostic subgroups of patients according to DSM III and those made on the second and tenth days after admission did not differ significantly. This remarkable tendency to estimate one's own image too thin in female schizophrenics is interpreted as an illusory approximation to an ideal image.