Citation

Hirsch SR, Jolley AG, Barnes TR, Liddle PF, Curson DA, Patel MM, York A, Bercu S, Patel M. Schizophr. Res. 1989; 2(3): 259-264.

Affiliation

Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School, London, U.K.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1989, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

2577273

Abstract

This study suggests that depressive symptoms are less common in severe, chronic, schizophrenic inpatients than would be predicted if these symptoms were manifestations of negative symptoms or drug-induced parkinsonism. The findings further suggest that depressive symptoms in such patients are independent phenomena which conform to a depressive syndrome. This depression does not represent a misidentification of the negative symptoms affective flattening and alogia, as measured by the SANS, or parkinsonism or akathisia. The study findings fail to support the view that long-term depot antipsychotic medication plays an important role in the genesis of depression and dysphoria in chronic schizophrenic patients. Depressive symptoms were found to occur as frequently, and dysphoria more frequently, in schizophrenic patients in the year after drug withdrawal compared with patients continuing on maintenance drug treatment for the same period.

Language: en