[Autochthonous recollection in early schizophrenia].
Autochthonous recollection in early schizophrenia is a subordinate symptom of autochthonous experiences, one of the four major symptoms specific to early schizophrenia as described by Nakayasu. Autochthonous recollection is detected most frequently in early schizophrenia. I am under the impression that the contents of autochthonous recollection tend to be unpleasant according to the patients' complaints. At the medical reformatory where I worked I experienced a case in which the autochthonous recollection of unpleasant contents seemed to form new symptoms in the patient, which elevated impulsivity and caused misconduct. Since then, I have performed symptomatic examinations of autochthonous recollection through cross-sectional and longitudinal methods upon 87 cases of early schizophrenia. In the cross-sectional aspect, past experiences of recollection consisted of 5 categories: <trivial experiences>, <TV, newspaper, comics>, <dream>, <pathological experiences> and <unpleasant experiences>. The number of categories of autochthonous recollection per patient was one category in 61 cases (70.1%), two in 20 cases (23.0%), three in 4 cases (4.6%), four in 1 case (1.2%), and five in 1 case (1.2%). The prevalence of recollections ranked by categories showed <trivial experiences> in 58 cases (66.7%), <TV, newspaper, comics> in 11 cases (12.6%), <dream> in 5 cases (5.7%), <pathological experiences> in 6 cases (6.9%), and <unpleasant experiences> in 42 cases (48.3%). Examination of the longitudinal aspect of symptomformation with autochthonous recollection revealed that in 19 cases new symptoms were formed and most were based on recollection of unpleasant experiences. They are: 1. elevated aggression towards him/herself and others, neurotic manifestation 2. silly smile, monologue 3. autochthonous fantasy images 4. rarefaction of sense of personal possession 5. ideas of reference 6. delusion of persecution, delusional memory The mechanisms of these symptomformations were suspected as follows: Ordinary psychogenic reaction for 1 and 2, induction of manifestation of other early symptoms for 3, and progression to full-blown stage of schizophrenia for 4, 5 and 6 (4, the beginning of disorder of self; 5, the beginning of delusion formation; 6, a delusion of full-blown stage).
Seki
Yukako
Y
Department of Psychiatry, International Medical Center of Japan.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003702:Delusions / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology