OBJECTIVE: To design a questionnaire to assess cognitive representations of mental health problems held by people diagnosed with schizophrenia. BACKGROUND: Personal beliefs about health problems have been reliably associated with emotional and behavioural responses to those health problems and health outcomes. This area has been extensively explored in relation to physical health, but somewhat neglected in mental health. In this study, a questionnaire designed to assess key beliefs about physical illness (the Illness Perception Questionnaire - Revised) was modified for use in exploring beliefs about schizophrenia. The new measure was termed the Illness Perception Questionnaire for Schizophrenia (IPQS). METHOD: Participants were 124 people with a diagnosis of schizophrenia who completed the IPQS and additional measures to assess symptom severity, emotional state, and attitudes towards medication. The psychometric properties of the IPQS were analysed, including internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and discriminant and concurrent validity. RESULTS: The IPQS subscales were shown to be internally reliable, and reliable over time. Correlations with measures of symptom severity, emotional state, and attitudes towards adherence to medication showed that the subscales were measuring the constructs that they were designed to measure. CONCLUSIONS: The IPQS is a reliable and valid measure of cognitive representations of mental health problems held by people with a diagnosis of schizophrenia.
OBJECTIVE: To design a questionnaire to assess cognitive representations of mental health problems held by people diagnosed with schizophrenia. BACKGROUND: Personal beliefs about health problems have been reliably associated with emotional and behavioural responses to those health problems and health outcomes. This area has been extensively explored in relation to physical health, but somewhat neglected in mental health. In this study, a questionnaire designed to assess key beliefs about physical illness (the Illness Perception Questionnaire - Revised) was modified for use in exploring beliefs about schizophrenia. The new measure was termed the Illness Perception Questionnaire for Schizophrenia (IPQS). METHOD:Participants were 124 people with a diagnosis of schizophrenia who completed the IPQS and additional measures to assess symptom severity, emotional state, and attitudes towards medication. The psychometric properties of the IPQS were analysed, including internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and discriminant and concurrent validity. RESULTS: The IPQS subscales were shown to be internally reliable, and reliable over time. Correlations with measures of symptom severity, emotional state, and attitudes towards adherence to medication showed that the subscales were measuring the constructs that they were designed to measure. CONCLUSIONS: The IPQS is a reliable and valid measure of cognitive representations of mental health problems held by people with a diagnosis of schizophrenia.
Authors: Kathleen Vanheusden; Jan van der Ende; Cornelis L Mulder; Frank J van Lenthe; Frank C Verhulst; Johan P Mackenbach Journal: Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol Date: 2008-08-21 Impact factor: 4.328
Authors: Catriona Hippman; Andrea Ringrose; Angela Inglis; Joanna Cheek; Arianne Y K Albert; Ronald Remick; William G Honer; Jehannine C Austin Journal: J Clin Psychiatry Date: 2016-02 Impact factor: 4.384
Authors: Elena Marcus; Philippa Garety; John Weinman; Richard Emsley; Graham Dunn; Paul Bebbington; Daniel Freeman; Elizabeth Kuipers; David Fowler; Amy Hardy; Helen Waller; Suzanne Jolley Journal: J Behav Ther Exp Psychiatry Date: 2014-06-21