[Tools for a clinical assessment of patients' attitudes toward their schizophrenic illness: 1. "Experience of illness" scale (EIS)].

Rationale and construction of the scale "Experience of illness" (EIS)-a simple scale for evaluation of patients' attitudes toward their schizophrenic disorders were presented. The EIS consists of three scales describing selected dimensions of the attitudes: cognitive (identification of the experience of illness with self), emotional (evaluating of the experience of illness), and behavioural (reflectiveness toward the experience of illness). Transformed sum of dimensional ratings allows to point the position of the whole attitude of each individual patient on a continuum between the isolation of his/her illness experience from other life experiences or the integration of the two kinds of experiences. Empirical results documenting reliability, validity, and feasibility of the EIS were also presented. Clinical usefulness of the proposed scale--as a premise for the treatment plan--is shortly discussed.