Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Dec 14:17:3645-3654.
doi: 10.2147/NDT.S341297. eCollection 2021.

Prevalence, Influencing Factors, and Cognitive Characteristics of Depressive Symptoms in Elderly Patients with Schizophrenia

Yaopian Chen  1 , Wei Li  2   3
Affiliations

Prevalence, Influencing Factors, and Cognitive Characteristics of Depressive Symptoms in Elderly Patients with Schizophrenia

Yaopian Chen et al. Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat. .

Abstract

Purpose: To investigate the prevalence, influencing factors, and cognitive characteristics of depressive symptoms in elderly patients with chronic schizophrenia.

Patients and methods: A total of 241 elderly patients with chronic schizophrenia and 156 healthy controls were enrolled in this study. The Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) was used to assess depressive symptoms; the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale was used to assess psychotic symptoms; and both the Mini-Mental State Examination and Montreal Cognitive Assessment were used to assess overall cognitive function, while the Activity of Daily Living Scale was used to assess daily living ability.

Results: The prevalence of depressive symptoms was 48.5% (117/241) in elderly patients with chronic schizophrenia, which was substantially higher than that of normal controls (17.3%, 27/156). Using a stepwise binary logistic regression analysis, we found that high education (p=0.006, odds ratio [OR]=1.122, 95% confidence interval [CI]:1.034-1.218) and hypertension (p=0.019, OR=0.519, 95% CI: 0.300-0.898) were influencing factors for the comorbidity of depressive symptoms. Compared with individuals without depressive symptoms, individuals with depressive symptoms usually display worse overall cognitive function and more severe impairment of activities of daily living, but fewer psychotic symptoms. Interestingly, the GDS score was negatively correlated with the course of the disease (r=-0.157, p=0.016), suggesting that patients who had recently been admitted to the hospital were more likely to develop depression.

Conclusion: Elderly patients with chronic schizophrenia are often associated with higher levels of depression. Therefore, their overall cognitive function is worse, and their activities of daily living are more seriously impaired. Therefore, these patients should be provided with appropriate psychological comfort, especially those who have recently been admitted to the hospital.

Keywords: chronic schizophrenia; depressive symptoms; education; elderly; hypertension.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Comparsion of the prevalence of depressive symptoms between the elderly with schizophrenia and the normal elderly.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Correlation between GDS and course of disease.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Amore M, Murri MB, Calcagno P, et al. The association between insight and depressive symptoms in schizophrenia: undirected and Bayesian network analyses. Eur Psychiatr. 2020;63(1):1–21. doi:10.1192/j.eurpsy.2020.45 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Cohen CI, Ryu HH. A longitudinal study of the outcome and associated factors of subsyndromal and syndromal depression in community-dwelling older adults with schizophrenia spectrum disorder. Am J Geriatr Psychiatr. 2015;23(9):925–933. doi:10.1016/j.jagp.2014.06.011 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Brooks JM, Blake J, Sánchez J, et al. Self-reported pain intensity and depressive symptoms among community-dwelling older adults with schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Community Ment Health J. 2019;55(8):1298–1304. doi:10.1007/s10597-019-00403-x - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Akinsulore A, Aloba OO, Mapayi BM, Oloniniyi IO, Fatoye FO, Makanjuola RO. Relationship between depressive symptoms and quality of life in Nigerian patients with schizophrenia. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 2014;49(8):1191–1198. doi:10.1007/s00127-014-0838-8 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Fond G, Faugere M, Richieri R, et al. Depressive symptoms and chronic peripheral inflammation are associated with impaired functional remission in schizophrenia independently of psychotic remission. J Affect Disord. 2021;280(PtA):267–271. doi:10.1016/j.jad.2020.11.046 - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources