Ratings of mood and affect using the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale
(BPRS), the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression, the Center for
Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), and an affective flattening
scale in 32 male schizophrenic inpatients revealed high total scale
reliability but lower intra-item reliability, especially for specific
depression items. Interscale correlations suggested several dimensions of
mood and affect: anxiety-depression (psychological dysphoria, motor
activation, and somatic symptoms), retardation-affective blunting, thought
disturbance, and hostility- suspiciousness. Correlation with a rating of
extrapyramidal symptoms suggested an association with the presence of
depressive symptoms. These results suggest that although adequate total
scale reliability was obtained, these indexes of depression may measure
different dimensions in schizophrenic patients than they do in patients
with affective disorders.
Abstract Teaser