The symptomatic remission may be a viable outcome in schizophrenia, particularly for patients with a mild illness and less severe negative symptoms at onset and with few psychotic episodes over time.

Our data suggests that TDP does not predict the development of depressive disorders in never-depressed patients at their first ACS, when the baseline depression severity was controlled.

In schizophrenia, a better level of functioning has been generally associated with symptomatic remission. However, this association has been supported by cross-sectional studies or by studies with a short follow-up period. Forty-eight patients with schizophrenia were evaluated by the Positive and Negative Symptoms Scale and the Social and Occupational Functioning Assessment Scale (SOFAS) at the first episode and after a mean period of 16 years. At follow-up, patients were defined as remitters (R) or non-remitters (NR) according to the Remission Schizophrenia Working Group criteria. R (n = 18; 37.5%) compared to NR showed at the first episode a lower illness severity and a better level of functioning. A functional decline was found in both groups at follow-up, even though NR showed a more than twofold reduction than R. Better SOFAS scores at follow-up were predicted by baseline SOFAS score and less severe negative symptoms at follow-up. Schizophrenia implies a functional decline over time, regardless of the symptomatic remission status with negative symptoms playing a major role.

These results indicate that patients with schizophrenia exhibit a narrower range of obsessive content compared with patients with OCD; in addition, OC and delusional themes tend to be related in schizophrenia as a unique symptomatic phenomenon.

No abstract