The course of treatment in schizophrenia in relation to the presence of affective disturbances.

Abstract

The frequency and type of affective disturbances developing in schizophrenia were evaluated and their relationship to the course of the disease and results of treatment was analyzed. The studied material comprised 67 patients with the diagnosis of schizophrenia, treated in hospital in 1973. The depressive and paranoid scores of Jaroszyński were used for evaluation of patients. Affective disturbances were found in nearly all cases, depressive symptoms being most frequent. The development or increasing intensity of depression could only partly be attributed to the action of neuroleptic drugs. No difference was found in the clinical pattern of affective distrubances between paranoid and cyclic schizophrenia. In the paranoid-depressive syndromes the best therapeutic results were obtained in cases with decreased complex activities and psychic inhibition. Neuroleptic drugs possessing some thymoleptic properties were used in treatment of these cases, sometimes in combination with tricyclic antidepressants. The results were in cases with significant anxiety, inhibition and depressive attitude towards the prevailing situation. Paranoid productive symptoms appeared in this group sometimes during treatment with tricyclic antidepressants.