Is poor insight in psychotic disorders associated with poor performance on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test? [published erratum appears in Am J Psychiatry 1996 Feb;153(2):270]

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to test whether poor insight in patients with psychotic disorders is correlated with their performance on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test. METHOD: The subjects included 52 psychotic patients (35 of whom had schizophrenia) given diagnoses according to DSM-III-R criteria. Their scores on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (number of categories and perseverative responses) were compared with those on three items measuring poor insight: lack of feeling ill, lack of insight, and uncooperativeness. RESULTS: None of the six correlations between scores on the two measures of the neuropsychological test and the three items measuring insight was significant. CONCLUSIONS: In spite of its limitations, this study suggests that poor insight may not be associated with poor performance on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test.