[Patients' attitudes toward their schizophrenic illness after their hospitalization]

Description of patients' attitudes toward their experience of illness as well as relationships between these attitudes and some other clinical variables (praemorbid background, picture and dynamics of clinical status, insight of illness, and indices of early prognosis) were examined in the group of 20 firstly addmitted inpatients suffering for schizophrenia (ICD-10 criteria). As a measure the scale "Experience of Illness" was used allowing to point the typus of the whole attitude (isolating, undecided, or integrating) and its three dimensions (cognitive, emotional and behavioural). Isolating or undecided attitudes prevailed over assimilating ones when patients were leaving the hospital (2:2:1). In addition, the findings suggest also that assimilating the illness was for patients more easy to achieve in the domain of knowledge about it (identifying the illness with self) or of reaction to it (ability to reflection) than in the domain of feelings (readiness to evaluate it positively). Some interesting correlations between attitudes and clinical variables need confirmation in larger sample of patients.