Autobiographical memory functioning and response to inpatient treatment for people diagnosed with Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders: and clinical research portfolio

Breustedt, Sarah (2017) Autobiographical memory functioning and response to inpatient treatment for people diagnosed with Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders: and clinical research portfolio. D Clin Psy thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

Background: Impairments in executive functioning and autobiographical memory (AM) are common in people with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD). There is a need for greater understanding of how neurocognitive factors such as these relate to recovery. This is important because improving treatments requires better understanding of the psychological process involved in recovery from SSD.

Aims: We aimed to determine the feasibility of assessing AM and metacognitive functioning in the acute phase of psychosis during inpatient admission. Relationships between neuropsychiatric measures and autobiographical memory were explored with a view to refining the use of this assessment battery with participants who are acutely psychotic.

Methods: Twelve people diagnosed with a schizophrenia spectrum disorder were recruited from adult inpatient psychiatric wards shortly after admission. They completed the Autobiographical Memory Interview, Indiana Psychiatric Illness Interview, Hayling Sentence Completion Task, BMIPB Story Recall Task and the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) interview in baseline assessment. Four participants were re-tested prior to discharge and rated their own recovery using the Questionnaire on the Process of Recovery. Ward clinicians also rated recovery in terms of symptom remission for eleven of the participants.

Results: A moderate correlation between metacognition and semantic AM (r=.716) was identified at baseline. Correlations of moderate strength were identified between clinician ratings of recovery and metacognition (r=-.725) and PANSS (r=.877) scores at baseline assessment.

Conclusions: The study faced difficulties recruiting sufficient numbers of eligible participants at baseline and retaining them to allow for follow up assessment. Hence, the results are preliminary but the data do suggest possible neuropsychological correlates of recovery from acute psychosis. If the recruitment and retention issues could be addressed, this paradigm could be applied to a larger sample to test the findings of this pilot study.

• Item Type: Thesis (D Clin Psy)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Keywords: schizophrenia spectrum disorders, metacognition, autobiographical memory, recovery, pilot study.
• Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
• Colleges/Schools: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Health & Wellbeing > Mental Health and Wellbeing
• Supervisor's Name: McLeod, Dr. Hamish
• Date of Award: 2017
• Depositing User: Dr Sarah Breustedt
• Unique ID: glathesis:2017-8486
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 31 Oct 2017 08:59
• Last Modified: 12 Jan 2018 09:25
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/8486