Am J Psychiatry 1986; 143:1222-1227
Copyright © 1986 by American Psychiatric Association
Symptoms of schizotypal personality disorder
LB Jacobsberg, P Hymowitz, A Barasch and AJ Frances
The authors examined the symptoms of 35 patients with schizotypal
personality disorder. In contrast to the suggestion, based on studies of
nonclinical, familial samples, that patients with schizotypal disorder are
best characterized by the negative symptoms of social isolation and
impaired functioning, they found that the positive symptoms of odd
communication, ideas of reference, magical thinking, and illusions were
equally valid discriminators of their clinically based group of patients.
The findings argue against the idea that schizotypal personality disorder
be redefined in the revision of DSM- III (DSM-III-R) to emphasize negative
symptoms and suggest that clinical samples of schizotypal patients may
differ from familial samples.
