Symptom patterns among chronic schizophrenic in-patients.

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.