Association of social competence with episodic vs remitted status in paranoid and nonparanoid schizophrenia.

Assessed 4 groups of schizophrenics—episodic paranoid, episodic nonparanoid, remitted paranoid, and remitted nonparanoid (mean ages 26.57, 25.57, 31.79, and 30.93 yrs, respectively)—on E. Zigler and J. Levine's (1973) scale of social competence. Additional measures included a symptom sign inventory and the Maine Scale of Paranoid and Nonparanoid Schizophrenia. The paranoids and nonparanoids were not significantly different from one another. However, the remitted patients were significantly more socially competent than the episodic patients. Implications are discussed for the relationship between symptom severity, hospitalization, and social competence. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The integration defect in paranoid and nonparanoid schizophrenia.

Tested a theory of schizophrenia which views the central defect as an inadequate integration of perceptual and cognitive processes. Instead of combining these processes as normals do, paranoids emphasize cognitive processes, whereas nonparanoids emphasize perceptual processes. 10 nonparanoid and 10 paranoid patients and 10 control Ss (hospital aides), all 18-60 yrs old, listened to sentences ending in high-, or low-probability words masked by 1 of 5 levels of white noise. As predicted, paranoids identified the masked word significantly more accurately than nonparanoids when task performance was facilitated by cognitive processes (expectation of the probable ending). When expectations operated to decrease performance (improbable endings), subgroup performance tended to reverse, although differences were not significant. The prediction that normals' performance would be intermediate in both conditions was confirmed. Controls performed more like paranoids on probable end words but more like nonparanoids on improbable end words. Moreover, signal detection analysis showed that paranoids were biased toward high-probability responses, whereas nonparanoids were biased toward low-probability responses, thus deviating from normals in opposite directions. (34 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Premorbid adjustment and paranoid-nonparanoid status in schizophrenia.

Using 98 schizophrenics, good premorbids were found to be evenly distributed regarding paranoid vs. nonparanoid symptomatology. Poor premorbids were predominantly nonparanoid and rarely paranoid. However, paranoids were predominantly good premorbids, whereas nonparanoids were distributed between good and poor premorbids. (15 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Premorbid adjustment and paranoid-nonparanoid status in schizophrenia: A further investigation.

Investigated the interrelations between premorbid social competence, role orientation as expressed in symptomatology, and paranoid-nonparanoid status in 295 Veterans Administration (VA) hospital and 300 state hospital male schizophrenic patients. Among state hospital paranoid schizophrenics, paranoids had higher premorbid social competence scores (Phillips-Zigler Social Competence Index) than nonparanoids. For VA hospital schizophrenics, paranoid-nonparanoid status was unrelated to premorbid social competence. State hospital patients had lower premorbid competence scores and a higher incidence of nonparanoid diagnosis than VA hospital patients. The prevalence of a number of symptoms also differed between the 2 hospitals. The role orientation symptom pictures differed both for hospitals and for paranoid and nonparanoid status. The relationships between role orientation, paranoid-nonparanoid status, and premorbid social competence are discussed within a developmental framework. (23 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Thought disorder in hospitalized and nonhospitalized chronic schizophrenic and nonpsychiatric patients.

Investigated the separate effects of length of illness and length of hospitalization on vocabulary and concept formation performance of 90 chronic schizophrenic and nonpsychiatric patients. Ss were approximately matched for length of illness but differed in time spent in hospitals (several years or a few months); they were compared on vocabulary associative interference and on concept formation indices from the Object Sorting Test. Schizophrenic in- and outpatients were subdivided into paranoids and nonparanoids and equated on severity of disturbance. Results indicate that both prolonged hospitalization and diagnostic status were associated with thought disorder, especially associative intrusions in vocabulary and idiosyncratic thinking. These indices appeared most efficient in distinguishing between schizophrenic and nonpsychiatric patients and between paranoid and nonparanoid schizophrenics. (French abstract) (34 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Creativity and schizophrenia: An equivalence of cognitive processing.

Two tests of creativity were given to 10 paranoid and 10 nonparanoid schizophrenics, 10 nonpsychotic psychiatric controls, and 10 normal Ss. Ss were aged between 18 and 50 yrs. Scores on vocabulary and similarities tests, as well as education, medication, marital status, socioeconomic background, and age, were examined. Results indicate that nonparanoid schizophrenics were significantly more creative than paranoids and psychiatric controls on one creativity measure, a graded level measure of the Alternate Uses Test. Also, nonparanoid schizophrenics produced a significantly higher percentage of "highly creative" responses than did normals. Nonparanoid schizophrenics also scored higher than the other groups on the Welsh Figure Preference Test, but this finding was found to be related to age rather than to schizophrenia. The superior performance of the nonparanoid schizophrenic is discussed in terms of the encouragement that a supportive, nonjudgmental testing environment provides. (35 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age on first hospitalization of schizophrenics: A developmental approach.

Compared ages at 1st hospitalization of 3 groups of schizophrenics: 64 males in a VA hospital and 60 male and 60 female patients in a state hospital. Paranoid Ss were approximately 8 yrs older when first admitted than the nonparanoids. In both diagnostic categories males were hospitalized about 5 yrs earlier than females. Working females with a diagnosis of paranoia were hospitalized approximately 10 yrs later than the paranoid females who remained at home and the nonparanoid females of either employment status. State hospital males were younger on 1st admission than VA hospital males. The ages of the 2 diagnostic groups in the VA were comparable, whereas in the state hospital the nonparanoid group was younger than the paranoid group by about 8 yrs. The need to pay greater attention to the differences between schizophrenic males and females and to scrutinize more closely differences between state and VA hospital patients is emphasized. (48 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Representational boundaries in role portrayals among paranoid and nonparanoid schizophrenic patients.

Studied the boundary properties of self and other representations in 31 normal Ss (mean age 18.8 yrs) and in 18 paranoid (mean age 21.2 yrs), 14 intermediate (mean age 21.9 yrs), and 16 nonparanoid (mean age 22.1 yrs) inpatient schizophrenics, using a dramatic role-playing technique. Role test and Rorschach responses were scored for presence of fluid and rigid boundaries between representations of human characters. Paranoid schizophrenics evidenced higher levels of rigid boundaries, nonparanoid schizophrenics had higher levels of fluid boundaries, and normal Ss showed fewer fluid or rigid boundaries. Rorschach and role test measures of boundary disruption were significantly correlated with each other and with other measures of psychopathology. Findings suggest that the relative balance between fluid and rigid representational boundaries is an effective discriminator of paranoid and nonparanoid subtypes and that the presence of either type of boundary imagery discriminates schizophrenics from normal Ss. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Components of processing deficit among paranoid and nonparanoid schizophrenics.

22 paranoid and nonparanoid schizophrenic inpatients were compared to 18 normals in their performance on a sentence verification task. Analysis of latency times indicated that the groups did not differ with respect to the aspect of processing involving central scanning and comparison operations. However, the paranoids were significantly slower than the normals in their overall latency times. Possible sources of this difference are discussed, and results are related to past evidence and hypotheses about central processing performance among schizophrenics. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Length of hospitalization and rate of readmission of paranoid and nonparanoid schizophrenics.

The underrepresentation of paranoids-a group that manifests less psychological deficit-in hospitalized chronic schizophrenic cohorts has been cited as a source of sampling bias in behavioral studies comparing acute and chronic schizophrenics. The sampling bias hypothesis assumes this underrepresentation to be due to the better social prognosis of paranoid patients. The present study examined hospitalization and follow-up records for 1,249 consecutive inpatient admissions. Consistent with the sampling bias assumption, paranoids were found to be hospitalized more briefly than nonparanoids and to experience fewer rehospitalizations 1, 3, and 5 yrs after discharge. As expected, the social prognosis of 1st admissions was found to be more favorable than that of readmissions, independently of paranoid symptomatology. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Disappearance of paranoid symptoms with chronicity.

Investigated the finding of a reduced proportion of paranoids in chronic samples. Whether this change is due to the disappearance of paranoid patients or of paranoid symptomatology is unclear. Data from 50 multi-admitted paranoid schizophrenics firmly support the notion that paranoid symptomatology disappears. Although half of the patients remained paranoid across 10 yrs of illness, the other half changed to nonparanoid status around the 3rd hospitalization and about 6 yrs after 1st admission. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Schizophrenic memory-search performance involving nonverbal stimulus properties.

Investigated schizophrenic memory-search performance by conducting a memory-search choice-reaction-time (CRT) task involving nonverbal stimulus properties (real-life sizes of items). Procedures were designed to diminish ambiguities concerning previous evidence of possible schizophrenic impairment in scanning and comparison operations involving memory-held items. Ss (aged 18–60 yrs) were 20 paranoid and 20 nonparanoid schizophrenics, 20 psychiatric controls, and 20 normal Ss. Results indicate that scanning and comparison operations proceeded at comparable rates among the schizophrenics and controls. On the other hand, rates of encoding the presented stimulation for a given trial (the trial's probe item) into a task-facilitative format proceeded at a slower rate among the paranoid Ss in particular. Discussion focuses on specific memory-search CRT paradigmatic conditions in which intact speed of memorial item comparisons tended to be most evident among these patients. Results resemble earlier observations of the present 2nd author (see record 1978-31872-001) on memory-search CRT performance among paranoid and nonparanoid schizophrenics when probe stimulation has remained in view throughout each trial. (38 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stress responses and coping propensity among paranoid and nonparanoid, episodic, and remitted schizophrenics.

28 remitted and 28 episodic paranoid and nonparanoid schizophrenics performed a "coping task" consisting of a simple tapping response purported to affect the duration of stressing loud sounds. Cognitive appraisals of the effectiveness of the available response, and task-performance measures of propensity (vis-à-vis reticence) to engage in the response were monitored. Results indicate both paranoid and nonparanoid Ss appraised the available coping response as being less effective than did controls; behavioral measures indicated generally lower propensity to cope among the nonparanoid Ss; the paranoid Ss were similar to controls on selected coping-propensity measures. These differences remained constant across episodic and remitted stages of illness. Psychophysiological evidence of stress arousal (heart-rate acceleration) indicated elevated responsivity specifically among the episodic patients. Results were discussed in terms of current formulations concerning vulnerability to schizophrenic episodes and efforts to cope with environmental stressors. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Use of the SADS—C as a diagnostic and symptom severity measure.

Examined the reliability of an abbreviated form of the full Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia (SADS), the SADS—C, in 2 studies. A total of 120 nonparanoid and paranoid schizophrenic, bipolar manic, and unipolar depressed patients and 26 normal Ss (mean age for all groups 31.8 yrs) were interviewed using the SADS—C and a number of other diagnostic instruments. Results of both studies suggest that the SADS—C is a reliable brief rating instrument capable of differentiating among psychopathological groups. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Concrete operational thinking, diagnosis, and psychopathology in hospitalized schizophrenics.

Assessed the hypothesis that performance on cognitive tests would differentiate among various patient subgroups classified according to diagnosis and chronicity. 66 acute and chronic male schizophrenic inpatients were administered tests of conservation, class inclusion, and geometric drawing. Results show that acute Ss achieved significantly higher scores on 4 cognitive subtests than did chronic nonparanoids, but differences between chronic paranoids and nonparanoids were not significant. Ratings of psychopathology dimensions, especially conceptual dysfunction, discriminated significantly among Ss at 3 levels of performance on conservation tests. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive appraisal of stress and schizophrenic subtype.

Studied differences in patterns of cognitive appraisal and response to stress in a total of 19 male nonparanoid process schizophrenics and paranoid reactive schizophrenics. Paranoids evidenced greater heart-rate response to stress stimuli while rating the stress categories as less disturbing than did nonparanoid Ss. Comparison of autonomic measures and verbal ratings of the slides indicated that paranoids underrated their autonomic response to stress stimuli while nonparanoid Ss overrated it. Results suppport the clinical literature on defensive styles of the 2 groups. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceptual grouping in schizophrenia: Replication of Place and Gilmore.

E. Place and G. Gilmore (see record 1980-25819-001) found that schizophrenics, unlike control Ss failed to utilize gestalt grouping principles in a task involving line counting. The present investigation was a replication of that study but with several methodological refinements, including the subtyping of schizophrenics, a fixed exposure duration of 15 msec, and analyses of both raw and arcsin transformed data. Ss were 10 paranoid schizophrenic, 10 nonparanoid schizophrenic, and 10 nonschizophrenic patients (mean age 31 yrs) and 10 normal undergraduates. The basic findings of Place and Gilmore held, and the refinements utilized made no difference. Results are discussed in terms of a 2-stage model of perceptual processing that describes normal perception in terms of an intitial global structuring of the stimulus field and a secondary local analysis. Schizophrenics appear to use the 2nd processing stage regardless of the stimulus condition. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Size Estimation in Schizophrenics as a Function of Stimulus-Presentation Time.

15 good premorbid paranoid acute schizophrenics, 15 poor premorbid nonparanoid acute schizophrenics, and 15 attendants, all males, estimated stimulus paranoid size after receiving (a) 10-sec. and (b) 100-msec. presentations of the standard, also (c) 10-msec. blank flashes instead of the standard. Choices were then made from a group of variable-sized stimuli. As expected, good paranoids, normals, and poor nonparanoids tended to low, intermediate, and high estimation levels, respectively. Contrary to eye-movement interpretation, patient groups differed under the 100-msec. presentation. Lowered estimation level with this presentation suggested stimulus redundancy interpretations. No differences with the blank flash ruled out a simple size-preference response bias. Equal proportions of "hits" among groups indicated that error distributions rather than error frequencies accounted for the results. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Further Investigation of the Effects of Subliminal Aggressive Stimulation on the Ego Functioning of Schizophrenics.

This was a study of the effects of subliminally presented aggressive stimuli on the ego functioning of schizophrenics. 40 hospitalized male Ss were seen for an experimental and control session in a balanced design. Measures of pathological thinking, accuracy of recall, and projection of aggression were obtained after the subliminal presentation of aggression-related and neutral stimuli. In response to the experimental condition both paranoid and nonparanoid patients produced significantly more pathological thinking; only the paranoids reacted with a significant increase in projection of aggression, and only the nonparanoids manifested a significant impairment in accuracy of recall. This data was seen as offering further support for the view that the disturbing effects of drive stimulation can be studied through the subliminal presentation of drive-related stimuli. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)