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Depression, Affect and Negative Symptoms in Schizophrenia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 August 2018

J.-P. Lindenmayer
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Montefiore Medical Center and Bronx Psychiatric Center, New York
Stanley R. Kay
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Montefiore Medical Center and Bronx Psychiatric Center, New York

Extract

The relationship of depression with affect deficit in schizophrenic patients continues to challenge both the clinician and the researcher. Often there is considerable difficulty in differentiating these two affect states in a reliable and valid fashion. On the observational level, depressed affect often appears somewhat restricted, having lost the full range of the euthymic state. On a subjective level, schizophrenic patients often complain of anhedonia, a defect in pleasure capacity which is shared by patients who are depressed. On the prognostic level, there is a large body of literature that links depressive features in acute schizophrenics to favourable subsequent course (Astrup & Noreik, 1966; Vaillant, 1964). We were, therefore, interested in investigating the relationship of depression with impaired affect and with positive/negative symptoms in young acute schizophrenic patients. We used a systematic multidimensional study of affect impairment among 37 young acute schizophrenic patients in a prospective, longitudinal approach over a 2-year span. In addition to a detailed assessment of the affect profile, including depression, both at baseline and on follow-up, we rated patients clinically for a positive and negative syndrome as well as general psychopathology, and we conducted premorbid and outcome measurements.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1989 

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