The course of depression for different types of schizophrenia

During 197 courses of treatment for schizophrenia, depressive mood was evaluated every other day with a self-rating mood scale. The different patterns of depression identified in an earlier study could be correlated with the diagnostic subgroups of schizophrenia in which the patients were classified. Hebephrenic affect disturbance appeared as temporal discontinuity of depressive mood during the courses of treatment. Patients with a paranoid type of schizophrenia were the least depressed and had the fewest fluctuations of mood. Although patients with a schizoaffective type of schizophrenia exhibited characteristic changes between manic and depressive mood, their mood within a manic or depressive period was more stable than that of any other subgroup. The differences in depressive course are discussed in terms of their symptomatological and diagnostic significance.