Welcome to the 21st WCP Virtual Congress Program Scheduling

Insight literally means the vision of one’s inner feelings of one’s own. Kraepelin (1919) noted that lack of insight was a feature of psychosis. Insight was viewed as a “unitary phenomenon” by Lewis (1934) and Jaspers (1968). Since 90’s that insight is viewed as a multidimensional construct. In the last decades, different instruments have been developed to measure insight across many psychiatric pathologies. Schizophrenia, obsessivo-compulsive disorder and depression are the main disorders to which specific instruments were designed. German Berrios reminds us the role Esquirol played in the recognition of the senselessness of the content of obsessions (and/or the unreasonableness of compulsions). In the XX century, insight was given a growing importance in the OCD. Diagnostic statistic manual fourth edition (DSM-IV) integrated those conceptual changes considering OCD with “poor insight”. We will address insight through different angles. Manarte will focus on the concept of insight and the instruments to measure it, their utility and limitations. Saldanha will adress the neurochemical basis of insight, in particular neurotrophic factors. Ventriglio will bring to us the social and cultural aspects of insight in different psychiatric disorders and also show how insight can be decisive to treatment and outcome. Finally, Duriez will give us the contributions from insight-based measurements which are used to compare beliefs about body weight and shape in Anorexia Nervosa to body image dissatisfaction in the general population, and make a parallel with delusional beliefs in schizophrenia.