DEPRESSION AND THE EXPERIENCE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL DEFICITS IN SCHIZOPHRENIA

A study of the relationships between depression and the subjective experience of psychological deficits was carried out in a group of 50 schizophrenic patients selected from a population of long-term mentally ill patients. Experience of psychological deficits was associated with depression, and furthermore the temporal relationships between the phenomena supported the hypothesis that experience of psychological deficits is associated with vulnerability to depression in schizophrenia. In addition, the patients' self-reporting of depressed mood and negative cognitions was congruent with an observer's assessment of depression. These findings indicate that subjective experiences of deficits characteristic of the schizophrenic illness confer vulnerability to depression, but nonetheless the patients' experience of depression resembles that typical of depressed non-schizophrenic patients.