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This dissertation, Social Anxiety and Low Grade Symptoms in Patients Following First Episode Psychosis by L S, Mok, 莫麗莎, was obtained from The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) and is being sold pursuant to Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation. All rights not granted by the above license are retained by the author. Abstract: Abstract of thesis entitled Social Anxiety and Low Grade Symptoms in Patients Following First Episode Psychosis Submitted by L.S. Mok for the degree of Master of Philosophy at the University of Hong Kong in August, 2004 Social anxiety is a prevalent cormorbid symptom in schizophrenia yet it has been under recognized. The present cross-sectional study aimed to investigate the relationships between social anxiety and low grade symptoms in remitted patients. Potential psychological factors and other risk factors of social anxiety would also be examined. Six-three outpatients with early psychosis were recruited, and 45 of them were classified as clinically stable according to the definition of no florid psychotic symptoms. Forty matched normal controls were also recruited for the comparison of social anxiety and other variables to remitted patients. The participants were interviewed for their social anxiety experiences using the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS). Besides, a set of questionnaires on low grade symptoms, including the Early Signs Scale (ESS), the Peters et al. Delusional Ideation Inventory (PDI-21), and a semi-structure interview on the Idea of Reference (IOR) were employed. Psychological factors of impulsivity, hopelessness, locus of control and ways of coping were also examined by self-rated questionnaires. Results showed that social anxiety is a more severe problem in psychoses patients than in normal controls. Using the cut-off score of 64 in the LSAS, which indicates an alarming level of social anxiety, 19% of the early psychosis patients scored higher than the cut-off. Specifically looking at the remitted patients, a significant larger number of patients (11.1%) reached this alarming level of social anxiety than the normal controls (2.5%). Besides, low grade symptoms were significantly correlated with social anxiety in both remitted patients and normal controls. Participants with more psychotic-like experiences, especially delusional ideations and ideas of reference, suffered from more severe social anxiety. In addition, specific psychological factors were identified in remitted patients that those with higher cognitive impulsivity, more hopeless and higher endorsement in the external locus of control reported a higher level of social anxiety. These findings suggest that low grade symptoms play a significant role in social anxiety, and their potential interaction with identified specific psychological factors increase the risk of social anxiety in remitted patients. However, the causal relationships among these variables remained unclear. Nevertheless, the results imply a need to address social anxiety and low grade symptoms in remitted psychosis patients who may be preparing to return to the community. DOI: 10.5353/th_b3138576 Subjects: Anxiety - TestingSocial phobia - TestingSchizophrenia - Diagnosis

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