Biomedical subjects
Makoto Nakaya
Publications and source records attributed to Makoto Nakaya.
Bizarre delusions and DSM-IV schizophrenia.
The present study investigated whether schizophrenia patients with and without DSM-IV bizarre delusions, categorized as bizarre delusions of Schneiderian first rank symptoms (SBD) and as non-Schneiderian bizarre delusions (non-SBD), differed on demographic or clinical features, in view of the weight given to bizarre delusions in the diagnosis of schizophrenia. One hundred and twenty-nine in-patients with schizophrenia were assessed systematically for both types of bizarre delusions on the five domains of psychopathology of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS; delusions/hallucinations, thought disorder/disorganization, excitement, negative symptoms and depressive symptoms) and for extrapyramidal side-effects. Inter-rater reliabilities for SBD and non-SBD were assessed and were exceptionally high (kappa value 0.85 and 0.92, respectively). Neither SBD nor non-SBD were associated with any demographic or non-PANSS clinical characteristics tested. However, the presence of non-SBD was significantly associated with more severe psychopathology in all five domains of the PANSS, whereas the presence of SBD was significantly associated with more severe psychopathology in three domains only: delusions/hallucinations, thought disorder/disorganization and depressive symptoms. However, patients with only SBD did not differ from patients with only non-SBD on any demographic or clinical variables, including five psychopathological domains. These findings suggest that, despite showing more severe symptoms, patients with DSM-IV bizarre delusions do not constitute a clinically distinguishable subgroup.
Subjective experiences of Japanese inpatients with chronic schizophrenia.
Knowledge of the subjective experience of patients has important implications for the understanding and treatment of schizophrenia. However, previous studies examining the clinical correlates of subjective experiences have yielded inconclusive results. The present study of Japanese inpatients with chronic schizophrenia aimed to reveal the factorial structure of patients' subjective experiences and to examine the relationships between identified factors and demographic and clinical variables. A systematic assessment was carried out of objective psychopathology and subjective experiences in 129 inpatients. A factor analysis of the data of patients' subjective experiences identified five factors. Delusions/hallucinations, as clinical variables, were significantly associated with three of these factors. Negative symptoms, extrapyramidal side effects, and female gender each had significant associations with only one of the factors. The first factor, which accounted for the highest percentage, did not correlate significantly with any of the clinical or demographic variables. Subjective experiences in chronic schizophrenia appear to have a heterogeneous structure and fall into two groups, one relatively independent of objective psychopathology and the other reflecting the clinical variable delusions/hallucinations.
Fluvoxamine treatment of a Japanese patient with koro.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.