Current symptomatology might differentially affect the self-report and clinician-rated appraisal of schizophrenia patients’ needs.
To examine the potential impact of current symptoms on patients’ and therapists’ assessment of patients’ needs.
Fifty-three schizophrenia patient–staff pairs were interviewed using the Greek research version of the Camberwell Assessment of Need (CAN-R). Patients’ symptom severity was assessed with the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS).
The degree of agreement between staff and patients in the assessment of needs was high. Significant correlations were found between the total number of needs and all the dimensions of PANSS (positive, negative, general psychopathology) in the staff group but not in the patient group. In both groups, the total number of unmet needs was significantly correlated with the general psychopathology and the total PANSS scores.
The constancy of the therapeutic context might contribute to a high rate of agreement between patients and staff about needs of the latter. The severity of symptoms may influence clinicians’ assessment of schizophrenia patients’ needs. Nevertheless, according to both patients’ and therapists’ assessments symptom severity is associated with greater number of unmet needs.