Course-related depressive syndromes in schizophrenia.

The authors evaluated 20 patients, diagnosed by Research Diagnostic Criteria after 1 week of hospitalization as having schizophrenia, weekly throughout their hospitalization. Four patients developed syndromes of depression after resolution of their psychoses: three manifesting a "minor" and one a "major" postpsychotic depressive syndrome. Four other patients went on to develop syndromes equivalent to major depression at a time when they were still actively psychotic, and their cross-sectional diagnoses were therefore changed to schizoaffective disorder, depressed type. The authors discuss the implications of these findings for diagnosis.