Higher Depression Scores in Patients with Drug-Resistant Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a mental illness with diverse clinical presentation, in which a significant proportion of patients show resistance to treatment. In patients with schizophrenia, symptoms from all psychotic and affective spectra are observed. On the one hand, affective symptoms determine the clinical course of schizophrenia and on the other hand, depressive symptoms are some of the most common ones in psychiatry in general. These data give us reason to explore the impact of depressive symptoms on the course of schizophrenia and its relationship with resistance to treatment.

A study of 105 patients with schizophrenia was performed. Of these, 39 were male and 66 were female. The evaluation of the effectiveness of the treatment carried out at 12 weeks of therapy showed that 45 were resistant to schizophrenia and the remaining 60 were in clinical remission. The clinical evaluation of the patients was performed with the PANSS (Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale) and BPRS (Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale) scales. The assessment of depressive complaints was conducted with the Hamilton Depression Scale.

Our study showed that in the analysis of depressive complaints with the Hamilton scale females got 12.55 points, and males got 11.44 points. We found a correlation of depressive complaints with the evaluation on the PANSS and BPRS scales, and in the analysis on the individual subscales we found a correlation on the subscale for positive and disorganized symptoms and no correlation on the scale for negative symptoms. We established a difference in the level of depression in patients with resistance in whom the level of depressive complaints was 13.82, while in those in clinical remission it was 10.87 points.

The level of depressive symptoms in patients with resistant schizophrenia is higher than in clinical remission. Depressive symptoms correlate with positive and disorganized symptoms on the PANSS scale, but not with negative symptoms. Gender is not a determining factor in depressive complaints.