PHYSICAL APPEARANCE AND POOR HYGIENE PATTERNS: EVIDENCE OF SCHIZOPHRENIC ILLNESS

Abstract

Objectives: To determine the physical appearance and personal hygiene patterns
of patients with schizophrenia in a form of behavioural checklist to explain
their evident function in diagnosing schizophrenia.
Methodology: The study comprised in-out patients of schizophrenia through
purposive sampling technique that was conducted in two phases. In phase- I, 32
diagnosed patients were approached while for phase-II, 75 patients were diagnosed
with the developed diagnostic checklist. The process involved recording
the physical appearance and personal hygiene patterns in the form of video
recordings. The videos were analysed through committee approach in order to
formulate a diagnostic checklist of schizophrenia. The validation of the developed
checklist was done through additional study on professionals including
psychiatrists and psychologists having their expertise in the field to verify the
indicators, consigned by the committee, as evident signs of schizophrenia. The
validation of the checklist leads to Phase-II in order to find out the diagnostic
accuracy of the developed tool in clinical settings. The findings were calculated
in the form of frequency counting and percentages.
Results: in our study, 53% of the schizophrenics had dirt in the body, hands
and feet while 41% were untidy in their appearance. 64% clinicians identified
untidiness as a schizophrenic hygiene pattern whereas 92% revealed dirtiness
as an indication of schizophrenia. The number of patients diagnosed through
ckecklist was 73 while patients diagnosed by professionals were 75, with 97%
diagnostic accuracy.
Conclusion: The developed diagnostic checklist, diagnosed the patients of
schizophrenia with high accuracy and thus poor hygiene patterns and bizarre
physical appearances were useful indicators of schizophrenia.