Temporal disorganization and primary affective disorder

Abstract

A self-rating scale of thinking process disorganization was used to measure degree of temporal disorganization in a group of 38 rigorously categorized psychiatric inpatients. Patients diagnosed as having primary affective disorder, depressed type, were significantly different from those with either a character disorder or schizophrenic diagnosis; both schizophrenic and character disorder groups showed variable temporal disorganization scores, and the primary affective disorder group showed consistently high levels of temporal disorganization. Diagnosis was more important than symptom measures in relationship to temporal disorganization scores.