The British Journal of Psychiatry 133: 176-178 (1978)
© 1978 The Royal College of Psychiatrists
Symptom patterns among chronic schizophrenic in-patients
A Bedford and AS Presly
The Delusions-Symptoms-States Inventory (DSSI) was administered to 33
chronic non-paranoid schizophrenic patients resident on long-stay wards. It
was found that the vast majority of cases (81 per cent) produced symptom
patterns conforming to the hierarchy of classes of personal illness model,
but with a radically different distribution among the classes from that in
acutely ill patients. Within the model a half of the patients were allotted
to the two lowest classes--Class 0 (Symptom-free) and Class 1 (Dysthymic
States). When each set of items was considered separately and independently
of the model, it was found that a half of the group professed to have
recently experienced delusions. Affective states and depressive symptoms
were reported by over a third of the patients.