Clinical and Sociodemographic Characteristics of Depressive Symptoms in a Sample of Egyptian Patients with Schizophrenia

Abstract Background Schizophrenia is a major psychiatric illness across the world, severely affecting the quality of life, and could be commonly associated with depressive symptoms, although its underlying pathology is still unclear and recently multiple studies were concerned with the relation between Schizophrenia and depressive symptoms. Objective To determine the rate of occurrence of depression in patients with Schizophrenia & assess the relation between the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of patients with Schizophrenia with depressive symptomatology. Patients and Methods This was an analytical cross-sectional study; carried out at Okasha Institute of Psychiatry, between September 2023 to March 2024. Results There was no statistically significant difference found between patients with and without depression, as confirmed or excluded by the CDSS, regarding PANSS and SANS scores. There was no statistically significant correlation between depressive symptoms in patients with Schizophrenia and the mentioned sociodemographic and clinical characteristics except for male gender as a protective independent factor and duration of illness ≥ 8 years as an independent risk factor. Further investigations via longitudinal studies and on larger samples are recommended to settle specific causal paths between the two variables. Conclusion Our study revealed that the male gender is a protective independent factor for depression in patients with schizophrenia and that the duration of illness ≥ 8 years is an independent risk factor for depression in schizophrenia. Yet, there are no other statistically significant sociodemographic or clinical characteristics associated with depressive symptoms in patients with Schizophrenia.