The role of personality in the treatment of schizophrenic and schizoaffective disorder inpatients: a pilot study.

As a prelude to a prospective study of personality functioning in chronically psychotic patients, the medical records of 736 hospitalized schizophrenic and schizoaffective disorder patients were retrospectively reviewed. The authors found much higher rates of Axis II personality disorder (PD) diagnoses among patients on extended-care inpatient units, which was consistent with their belief that clinicians on these units were using Axis II labels to document concurrent as well as premorbid personality factors. In addition, patients with PD diagnoses had significantly different courses of inpatient treatment, as documented by length-of-stay data. Level of function at discharge did not differ between those with and without PD diagnoses. The authors posit various hypotheses about these findings and discuss difficult conceptual and methodological issues regarding the influence of personality factors in schizophrenia.