Am J Psychiatry 1984; 141:1254-1257
Copyright © 1984 by American Psychiatric Association
Course-related depressive syndromes in schizophrenia
SG Siris, A Rifkin, GT Reardon, J Endicott, DH Pereira, R Hayes and E Casey
The authors evaluated 20 patients, diagnosed by Research Diagnostic
Criteria after 1 week of hospitalization as having schizophrenia, weekly
throughout their hospitalization. Four patients developed syndromes of
depression after resolution of their psychoses: three manifesting a "minor"
and one a "major" postpsychotic depressive syndrome. Four other patients
went on to develop syndromes equivalent to major depression at a time when
they were still actively psychotic, and their cross-sectional diagnoses
were therefore changed to schizoaffective disorder, depressed type. The
authors discuss the implications of these findings for diagnosis.
