Deficit states in schizophrenia and their association with the length of illness and gender

Abstract

The present study investigated the association between the frequency of deficit states (DS) and the length of illness and gender in schizophrenic patients. The following hypotheses were examined: 1) there is an association between the length of schizophrenic illness and the frequency of DS and 2) the frequency of DS in patients with comparable length of illness is higher in males than in females. Patients, included in the study, were consecutively hospitalized and diagnosed according to ICD-9 criteria (ICD-9: 295-295.9). Psychopathological assessment was performed in a standardized manner. Group differences were evaluated by using the t-test or the chi-square statistics. Variables with a possible impact on the occurrence of DS were entered into a backward multiple logistic regression model. 622 patients (total = 3914) were classified as having a DS. Logistic regression analysis revealed that the risk of having a DS was increased with a longer duration of illness (OR =1.68) and was reduced for female gender (OR = 0.56). The findings are in line with the hypothesis that apart from a neurodevelopmental origin, the schizophrenic illness may also have a progressive neurodegenerative component, which clinically emerges as DS.

Psychopathological characteristics and treatment response of first episode compared with multiple episode schizophrenic disorders

“…The results are also compatible with those of Murphy et al [22] and Bottlender et al [5], who found an increasing frequency of negative symptoms with a longer duration of illness. Conflicting results, however, have been reported by Shtasel et al [27], who compared 37 first episode patients with 70 chronic schizophrenic patients and found no marked differences in the psychopathological symptom profile, and especially no differences with respect to negative symptoms.…”

“…Sanger et al [26] reported less pronounced negative symptoms in first episode compared with multiple episode patients. Other studies found an increasing frequency of negative symptoms [5, 22] and neuropsychological impairment [7] with a longer duration of illness, which led to the hypothesis of a “neurodegenerative model” of schizophrenic disorders [18]. On the other hand, further studies failed to identify marked differences between first episode and chronic schizophrenic disorders with respect to psychopathological symptoms [20, 27], neuropsychological function [1, 21] or social deficits [11].…”

The impact of duration of untreated psychosis and premorbid functioning on outcome of first inpatient treatment in schizophrenic and schizoaffective patients

“…Considering that this finding is in line with most of the previous retrospective and prospective studies (e. g., Bottlender et al 2000Bottlender et al , 2001Carbone et al 1999;Edwards et al 1998;Haas et al 1998;Loebel et al 1992;McEvoy 1991;Wyatt et al 1997), and that only a few authors reported conflicting results concerning this topic (e. g., Craig et al 2000;Ho et al 2000), one can say that the association between duration of untreated psychosis and poor outcome seems to be a relatively robust finding. Nevertheless, it still remains unclear whether the findings concerning this association are confounded by other factors that are known to have an impact on outcome.…”

Primary and persistent negative symptoms: Concepts, assessments and neurobiological bases

“…An association between DS and male gender has been reported (Carpenter et al, 1988;Bottlender et al, 2001;Roy et al, 2001b). DS is associated with a family history of schizophrenia (Dollfus et al, 1998;Kirkpatrick et al, 2000Kirkpatrick et al, , 2001Ross et al, 2000) and an increase in summer births compared with the general population, unlike schizophrenia in general for which a winter birth excess is reported (Kirkpatrick and Galderisi, 2008).…”