Personality aspects of rehabilitation of patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders and comorbid addictive pathology in a specialized psychiatric hospital setting

This study is devoted to identifying the potential of psychological rehabilitation concerning the personal sphere of patients with diagnosed schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD) and comorbid addictive pathology in a specialized psychiatric hospital. We studied the individuals suffering from SSD and comorbid addiction undergoing psychological rehabilitation in a specialized psychiatric hospital setting. The subject of the research was the personality characteristics of patients with SSD and comorbid addictive pathology. The study hypothesis was that the parameters significantly altered during the psychological rehabilitation of patients with SSD and comorbid addiction would be associated with the patients' personality characteristics, predetermining the possibility of their correction through a rehabilitation process. The following psychodiagnostic instruments were used: the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), the Brief Negative Symptom Scale (BNSS), the Ways of Coping Questionnaire, the Life Style Index (LSI), the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI), and the Motives for Drug Use scale. Mathematical and statistical analysis was performed using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test and Spearman's rank correlation coefficient. The novelty of the research lies in identifying the specific personality constructs that can be targeted for correction in the rehabilitation process of this patient population through group work focused on traditional targets—negative symptoms and cognitive skills. In the course of psychological rehabilitation, dynamic changes were found in the integral indicator of negative symptoms (p=0.01), blunted affect (p=0.04), anhedonia (p=0.04), and asociality (p=0.03), as well as in cognitive skills (p=0.03). The correlation analysis indicated a potential for rehabilitation that is presumably latent in the following areas: psychological defense mechanisms, coping strategies, motivation to use psychoactive substances, and time perspective. The future direction of this work is aimed at confirming the identified relationships through practical experience within a long-term, systematic, and multifaceted psychological rehabilitation program.