Patterns of self-reported symptoms in chronic psychiatric patients.

The patterns of self-reported symptoms in 103 chronic psychiatric patients were examined using the Delusions-Symptoms-Sign Inventory (DSSI). The subjects were all those able to co-operate drawn from the total population of psychiatric patients in Leicestershire who had been in continuous in-patient or day-patient care for over one year. A majority reported dysthymic symptoms and some sort of delusions. Three-quarters produced patterns of response predicted by the hierarchy hypothesis of Foulds.