The Association between Self-Reported Self-Disturbance Phenomena and Personal Recovery in Patients with a...

Area of Science:

• Psychiatry
• Clinical Psychology
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Self-disturbance phenomena are recognized as core features in schizophrenia spectrum disorder (SSD).
• Personal recovery involves building a meaningful life despite mental illness challenges.
• The link between self-disturbance and personal recovery in SSD has not been previously studied.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the association between self-reported self-disturbance severity and personal recovery levels.
• To compare these associations across patients with SSD, their unaffected siblings, and healthy controls.

Main Methods:

• Cross-sectional study with 522 SSD patients, 608 siblings, and 369 controls.
• Self-disturbance measured by the Self-Experience Lifetime Frequency Scale (SELF).
• Personal recovery assessed using the Recovery Assessment Scale (RAS-24).
• Spearman correlations and hierarchical regression analyses were performed.

Main Results:

• Higher self-disturbance severity correlated with lower personal recovery across all groups (patients, siblings, controls).
• Self-disturbance modestly predicted personal recovery in SSD patients after adjusting for other symptoms (R² change = 0.035).

Conclusions:

• Self-reported self-disturbance phenomena are significantly associated with personal recovery in SSD.
• Clinicians should prioritize patients' first-person perspectives, including self-disturbance experiences, to enhance recovery support.