Yurchenko O. Addictions in patients with paranoid schizophrenia

The dissertation is devoted to the development of an approach and a tool for the formalized diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia (SCPT), burdened by comorbid states of addiction through a comprehensive assessment of family history, existing psychopathology, addictive status, indicators of social functioning and the quality of life of such patient. The main group of the study consisted of 107 patients with paranoid schizophrenia and a control group of 70 healthy volunteers. All of them were male of comparable age. The most significant psychopathological symptoms were anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive, as well as psychoticism. It was shown that the increase of expressiveness of any addictive disorders is always accompanied by a deterioration of mental state. However, this deterioration in healthy people is more strongly associated with food addiction, and in patients with SCPT it is also associated with addictions related to alcohol use, sex and watching TV. It was found that the addictive potentials of almost all objects of abuse in the group of patients with SCPT were significantly and reliably (p <0,05) higher than in the healthy group: for tobacco – in 2.3 times, for television – in 2.6 times, for tea and coffee – in 5.6 times, for computer games – in 8.7 times. It means that the development of SCPT significantly increases the level of vulnerability of such patients to the formation of various addictions. A number of new informative markers of SCPT have been identified, including: the presence of addictions associated with nicotine, caffeine and sex, as well as low values of such indicators of quality of life as self-realization, socio-emotional support and perception of quality of life in general. As a result of the study a method for comprehensive diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia was developed, which takes into account all listed above characteristics and indicators. The created integral table of additional signs of SCPT (diagnostic markers) is suitable for both preliminary (screening) studies and for final conclusions.