Is poor insight in psychotic disorders associated with poor performance on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test?

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this study was to test whether poor insight in patients with psychotic disorders is correlated with their performance on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test.

METHOD

The subjects included 52 psychotic patients (35 of whom had schizophrenia) given diagnoses according to DSM-III-R criteria. Their scores on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (number of categories and perseverative responses) were compared with those on three items measuring poor insight: lack of feeling ill, lack of insight, and uncooperativeness.

RESULTS

None of the six correlations between scores on the two measures of the neuropsychological test and the three items measuring insight was significant.

CONCLUSIONS

In spite of its limitations, this study suggests that poor insight may not be associated with poor performance on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test.