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Premorbid Personality in First-Onset Psychosis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Tim Dalkin ,
Patrice Murphy ,
Cris Glazebrook ,
Ian Medley  and
Glynn Harrison
Tim Dalkin*
Affiliation:
Westminster House, Mapperley Hospital, Nottingham
Patrice Murphy
Affiliation:
St Leonard's Hospital, Mullingar, Ireland
Cris Glazebrook
Affiliation:
Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham
Ian Medley
Affiliation:
Mandala Centre, Nottingham
Glynn Harrison
Affiliation:
Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham
*
∗Correspondence
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Abstract

The data presented are those from a two-year prospective study of 69 patients identified in the Nottingham field centre of the WHO Study of Determinants of Outcome of Severe Mental Disorders. Premorbid personality, childhood adjustment and adolescent adjustment were assessed at the patients' first presentation to psychiatric services with a psychotic illness. Ratings were made blind to diagnosis. Premorbid explosive and paranoid traits were commoner in patients with schizophrenia than in patients with other non-organic psychoses, and these traits were associated with later onset of schizophrenia. Premorbid schizoid traits were significantly commoner in patients with schizophrenia compared to patients with other psychoses, but only in those patients for whom a parent was the informant. Schizoid traits were no commoner in men with schizophrenia than in women, and were not associated with earlier age of onset. The findings suggest that premorbid personality, in men and women, may shape the expression of symptoms produced during an illness episode.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 164 , Issue 2 , February 1994 , pp. 202 - 207
Copyright
Copyright © 1994 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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Footnotes

1.

A report from the UK Field Research Centre of the World Health Organization Collaborative Study on Determinants of Outcome of Severe Mental Disorders.

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