[Schizophrenia: subjective illness theories--an explorative study. 1: Patients]

The growing acceptance of Zubin's vulnerability-stressor-model in research and clinical practice stresses the importance of schizophrenic patients individual coping strategies. Coping strategies are influenced not only by individual cognitions concerning the actual illness but also by opinions of key-persons within the social network of the patient. Research on the acquisition of patients subjective view of the schizophrenic illness has to integrate both the individual psychological resources as well as the social context variables. The present paper reports about in depth open interviews with six patients and their key relatives. The results were derived from a structural analysis of the tape-recorded and transcribed interviews. Patients showed a broad variety of etiological explanations of their illness and expressed a need for more comprehensive information (part 1). Parents stated a more pessimistic prognosis of the course of illness than patients. Both patients and parents complained about the lack of mutual communication about the illness and its symptoms (part 2). Implications of these results concerning psychoeducational programs for patients and families as well are discussed.