Postpsychotic depressive symptoms in hospitalized schizophrenic patients

Through chart review, we examined the incidence of depression-like symptoms and syndromes during the postpsychotic period of hospitalization in 50 patients whose conditions were diagnosed by Research Diagnostic Criteria (RDC) as being schizophrenia. Twenty patients (40%) reported experiencing substantial subjective sadness, and 17 (34%) were observed by staff to appear depressed. In 11 (22%), symptoms were noted in a pattern that would satisfy RDC for a minor depressive syndrome, and in an additional three patients (6%) the symptom pattern met criteria for a major depressive syndrome. These findings indicate that postpsychotic depressive symptomatology occurs relatively often in patients with schizophrenia diagnosed by stringent criteria, but that full syndromal manifestations of depression occur less frequently.