European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Abstract

Background: Impaired awareness of illness has been known for hundreds of years. In 1604 in his play, "The Honest Whore", Thomas Dekker has a character say: "That proves you mad because you know it not". Among neurologists, unawareness of illness is well known since it also occurs in some individuals with stroke, brain tumors, Alzheimer's disease and Huntington's disease.
Methodology: This is a descriptive study, of naturalistic design done in the acute ward  of psychiatry department. Patients attending the out patient department at GMCH  Purnea and NMCH Patna. Hospital, at psychiatry department, Bihar. Study duration of two years. who were psychotic and required admission and hence hospitalized in the acute ward (family ward) studied.
Conclusion: A group of 30 patients with schizophrenia who were hospitalized were compared with 30 patients with mania who were hospitalized on sociodemographic profile and clinical variables. Validated scales were used to assess insight, psychotic severity and overall functioning at admission and discharge. It was found that insight in schizophrenia and mania did not have substantial differences. We found that insight improves during hospitalization and treatment in both the groups. We also conclude that some aspects of insight may be state dependent in both these groups.