Depressive dimension, clinical outcome, and duration of hospitalization in acute schizophrenia

In the present study we extract clusters of symptoms in acute hospitalized patients affected by Schizophrenia, using factor analysis of BPRS-E. We aim to explore the relationship between symptom dimensions, duration of hospitalization, and clinical outcome, in order to test if the depressive dimension might contribute significantly to predict the outcome. The data were drawn from a prospective, naturalistic, observational study of schizophrenic patients consecutively admitted to a psychiatric ward (SPDC, Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico of Milan), during a re-exacerbation phase. General symptomatology was measured through BPRS-E at baseline (T0) and at discharge (T1). We found symptoms of acute schizophrenia to cluster together in four distinct domains, labelled "Depression", "Excitement", "Positive symptoms", and "Negative symptoms". The "Depression" cluster is significantly associated to a good clinical outcome, as measured by percentage of improvement in BPRS score, but not to duration of hospitalization.