Study on Characteristics of Reality Monitoring Held by Patients With Schizophrenia: Based on the Actual Autobiographical Memories

Abstract

Purpose: This study aims at clarifying the characteristics of reality monitoring, which is a function to distinguish memories, based on the actual autobiographical memories held by patients with schizophrenia.

Methods: The study participants were 20 patients with schizophrenia who were hospitalized and treated in an acute care ward. In addition to their background, we asked about how they remember the experience of being hospitalized and their condition around that time before transitioning into a semi-structured interview with each of them. We then analyzed the contents of the narrative data.

Results: The participants were 10 males and 10 females. We found 130 codes in the autobiographical memories told by them, which we grouped into 22 subcategories, from which seven categories were finally identified: I understand myself well; I didn’t know what to do; I am ill; No one believes me; I don’t want to accept my illness; I want to be better; and I want to be me.

Conclusion: Although patients with schizophrenia are characterized by having a tendency of speculation- and imagination-dominant reality monitoring, situations were confirmed where they also see their memories realistically and objectively through perception-dominant monitoring.