Measurement of mood and affect in schizophrenic inpatients

Ratings of mood and affect using the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS), the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression, the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), and an affective flattening scale in 32 male schizophrenic inpatients revealed high total scale reliability but lower intra-item reliability, especially for specific depression items. Interscale correlations suggested several dimensions of mood and affect: anxiety-depression (psychological dysphoria, motor activation, and somatic symptoms), retardation-affective blunting, thought disturbance, and hostility-suspiciousness. Correlation with a rating of extrapyramidal symptoms suggested an association with the presence of depressive symptoms. These results suggest that although adequate total scale reliability was obtained, these indexes of depression may measure different dimensions in schizophrenic patients than they do in patients with affective disorders.