Clinical Significance of Insight in Psychosis

Insight in psychosis is a multi-dimensional process, unfolding with time. It is domain-specific and influenced by a host of factors (cognitive, emotional, social and cultural) which all interact. In psychiatric context insight is often referred to as the ability of an individual to recognize that one has a mental illness or is experiencing psychopathological symptoms. But, most of the times, the concept of insight is far from being fully understood. Some of these uncertainties reflect the dynamic nature of insight, which implies uncertainty, thereby necessitating the need for therapeutic intervention because higher levels of insight have been shown to correspond to better psychosocial functioning and better clinical outcomes. The acknowledgement of a mental illness by the patient was cardinal to diagnosis of the presence of insight. In this article we have stressed the clinical implications of insight in psychosis with a overview of the various schools of thought, the fact that the quality of patients ’lives might be improved by adopting the strategies to improve insight, thereby reducing the relapse and re-hospitalization rates and attitudes to treatment.