Factor Analysis of Psychiatric Symptoms: Alcoholics Compared with Schizophrenics

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Abstract
Varimax factor analysis of 20 symptoms obtained at admission ratings of a consecutive sample of 201 chronic alcoholic patients in a Veterans Administration Hospital Treatment Program yielded 6 factors (eigenvalue ≥ 1): Depression-Anxiety, Uncooperative, Disorganized Thinking, Memory Deficit, Disoriented, and Unmotivated. Four of these same factors have been reported in a five-factor solution of these same 20 rating-scale variables on a large sample of Veterans Administration schizophrenic patients. The availability of follow-up data permitted additional factor analyses of these variables at 3 subsequent time points: hospital exit, at 1 mo. and at 12 mo. follow-up. In contrast to the schizophrenic sample which had also been analyzed at several time points, our factors did not all remain constant, pointing to a greater lability in symptoms in alcoholics before, during, and after treatment.

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