Anxiety in schizophrenic psychoses

Anxiety and depression were assessed with self-rating and observer-rating scales on admission and at discharge in 225 inpatients with hebephrenic, catatonic, paranoid or residual schizophrenia. The control subjects were 104 patients with endogenous depression and 63 with anxiety neurosis. The results were also compared with findings for a reference group of 2493 inpatients with a wide range of psychiatric disorders and a representative sample of the general population consisting of 1952 persons. On admission the group of schizophrenic patients was markedly more anxious than the group of healthy persons, slightly less anxious than the psychiatric reference group and much less anxious than the group with endogenous depression and anxiety neurosis. Anxiety correlated significantly with acute paranoid symptoms, whereas depression dominated just prior to discharge, when the acute symptoms had subsided. This indicates that anxiety is a consequence of the underlying schizophrenic disorder and also that the psychotic symptoms may not be a defense against anxiety.