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Factor structure of symptoms in functional psychoses
V Peralta1, M J Cuesta, C Farre
1Psychiatric Unit, Virgen del Camino Hospital, Pamplona, Spain.
Biological Psychiatry
|November 5, 1997
Summary
Principal-component analysis of psychosis symptoms revealed that positive, negative, and disorganization factors are not unique to schizophrenia. These symptom dimensions appear across various functional psychoses, suggesting a dimensional view of psychopathology.
Area of Science:
- Psychiatry
- Clinical Psychology
- Psychopathology
Background:
- Schizophrenia is often characterized by positive, negative, and disorganization symptom clusters.
- The specificity of these symptom dimensions across different functional psychoses remains an area of investigation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the presence and diagnostic relevance of positive, negative, and disorganization symptom factors in schizophrenia and other functional psychoses.
- To explore the relationship between these symptom factors and other clinical syndromes like depression, mania, and catatonia.
Main Methods:
- Principal-component analysis (PCA) was applied to symptom ratings from the Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms and Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms.
- The study included patients diagnosed with schizophrenia, schizophreniform disorder, schizoaffective disorder, mood disorders, delusional disorder, brief reactive psychosis, and atypical psychoses.
- Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to examine factor differences across DSM-III-R diagnoses and correlations with depressive, manic, and catatonic syndromes.
Main Results:
- PCA identified psychosis, disorganization, and negative factors present in both schizophrenic and non-schizophrenic groups.
- The disorganization factor showed a tendency towards association with manic syndromes.
- The negative factor was linked to depressive and catatonic syndromes, and was relatively more characteristic of schizophrenia but had limited diagnostic relevance overall.
Conclusions:
- Positive, negative, and disorganization symptom factors are not specific to schizophrenia and are observed across various functional psychoses.
- These findings support a dimensional perspective of psychopathology in functional psychotic disorders rather than distinct categorical entities.
- The limited diagnostic relevance of these factors underscores the complexity of differentiating psychotic disorders based solely on symptom clusters.