Insight and neuropsychological function in patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder with psychotic features.

OBJECTIVES

This study investigates the pattern of association between patient unawareness of illness and neuropsychological tests of frontal lobe function in subjects with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder (BD) with psychotic features.

METHOD

We administered the Wisconsin Card Sort Test (WCST) and a shortened version of the Scale to Assess Unawareness of Mental Disorder (SUMD) to a sample of 64 patients with psychosis (42 with schizophrenia and 22 with BD).

RESULTS

None of the correlations between WCST scores and insight scores were statistically significant, either in the total group or in each group analyzed separately. Further, no differences were seen in insight scores between sexes and between the diagnostic groups.

CONCLUSIONS

The 3 insight dimensions (that is, awareness of mental disorder, awareness of social consequences of mental disorder, and awareness of the benefits of medication) do not appear to be associated with frontal impairment, as measured by the WCST.