Comparison of clinician-rated and self-report insight in Korean patients with schizophrenia using VAGUS insight scale

This study was aimed to explore self-report auditory verbal hallucinations to provide unique and valuable information in addition to clinician-rated assessment in patients with schizophrenia. The VAGUS (http://www.vagusonline.com) is a recently developed insight scale that includes both clinician-rated (CR) and self-report (SR) versions. Insight measures obtained by the two versions of the VAGUS from the clinicians and the patients, respectively, in forty-one patients diagnosed with schizophrenia by DSM-IV-TR criteria were compared. Correlation coefficients for inter-scale convergence and 3-D biplots for multivariate relationship were derived from the subscales of the VAGUS. For external validation, correlation analyses with abridged version of Scale to Assess Unawareness in Mental Disorder (SUMD-A) and PANSS G12 item were conducted. Total scores of VAGUS-CR and –SR were 5.2 ± 2.6 and 4.9 ± 2.2, respectively. There was a strong correlation between them along with moderate pairwise correlations among the subscales. The 3-D biplots demonstrated that most subscales were clustered as a single factor apart from self-report Symptom Attribution separated as an independent factor. The VAGUS-CR, not -SR correlated significantly with the SUMD-A and PANSS G12. The utility of the VAGUS in reaching more overall understanding of the elusive phenomenon of insight in patients with schizophrenia is discussed.