Clinical and genetic associations of depressive symptoms in paranoid schizophrenia

Objective : to establish clinical and genetic associations in patients with paranoid schizophrenia with and without depressive manifestations. Materials and methods : patients with paranoid schizophrenia after 10–14 days of inpatient treatment were included. Psychometric methods were used: Calgary Depression Scale for Patients with Schizophrenia (CDSS), PANSS scale, Columbia Suicide Risk Rating Scale (C-SSRS). Genotyping of the HTR2A gene (rs6313) was performed by PCR. Statistical methods: Microsoft Excel, IBM SPSS Statistics 26. Results: depressive manifestations were detected in 31.8% (124/390). The least frequent item was “suicide”, but it was expressed most strongly in a severe degree. Conclusions : 31.8% of respondents with paranoid schizophrenia experienced depressive symptoms. An inverse relationship was found between the severity of the condition and the frequency of depressive symptoms: the most common was the absence of symptoms, while severe symptoms were the least common. Hopelessness demonstrated an association with the HTR2A rs6313 gene (p=0.044). No significant correlations were found when comparing the remaining values on the Calgary Depression Scale.