Schizophrenia Research Trends

Body Image Deviation in Chronic Schizophrenia: New Research 23Study 3. Depression and Body Image in Chronic SchizophreniaIntroductionAlthough mood disorders are conventionally viewed as nosologically distinct fromschizophrenia, depression in schizophrenia has been recognized from the time of Mayer-Gross (1920) and Bleuler (1911/1950). Comorbid depressive signs and symptoms (DSS) inschizophrenia were earlier described as postpsychotic depression (McGlaschan & Carpenter,1976), resulting from realization of disability once psychosis has abated and insight isrecovered. A second view is described as post-treatment depression in which neurolepticmedication causes depression in schizophrenia (Van Puttan & May, 1978;Galdi, 1983). Theconcept has been further elaborated by Van Putten and May (1978), who argued thatdepression in schizophrenia might be specifically associated with extrapyramidal side effectsof neuroleptic medication. A third view relates depression to the schizophrenic process itself.According to this hypothesis, depression forms an integral part of the illness, predicting thatdepressive symptoms would be most prevalent during the acute phase of illness and subsidewith treatment (Knights & Hirsch, 1981; Hirsch, 1982).Recently, DSS have become a target of treatment because novel antipsychotic agentsintroduce new avenues that may differentially affect schizophrenic signs and symptoms,including depression (Pickar, 1995; Tollefson et al., 1998), and its association with a higherrisk of suicide and self-harm (Siris, 1991; Hu et al., 1991; Drake & Cotton, 1986; Caldwell &Gottesman, 1990; Cohen et al., 1990; Roy et al., 1983) has been highlighted. There arestudies that reported depressive schizophrenics attempt at unusual self-mutilation (Feldman,1988; Burgess, 1991; Martin & Gattaz, 1991; Weiser et al., 1993; Kennedy & Feldmann,1994), which suggest a close relationship between DSS in schizophrenia to body imageaberrations.The report in this section looks at depression in schizophrenia by detecting its uniquerelationship to patients’ body image using BIQ.MethodSubjectsThe subjects in study 1 were used. (See Table 1.)Assessment of DepressionDepression was assessed by Zung’s Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS, Zung, 1965). TheSDS scores ranged from 24 to 64, and their mean (SD) was 40.0 (7.9). Based on thedistribution, the (schizophrenic and normal) depressive groups were comprised of those whoscored 48 or higher, which included 20.3% of all subjects, including schizophrenicc andnormal populations. The non-depressive groups were comprised of those who scored 32 orlower, which included 18.9% of all subjects.Data AnalysisThe means of the factor scores obtained in study 1 were compared between thedepressive (SDS scores >=48) and non-depressive (SDS scores =