Comorbid Anxiety Disorders in Schizophrenia: The Relationship between Sociodemographic and Clinical Characteristics

Objective: In this study, we aimed to investigate the frequency of comorbidity of anxiety disorders and schizophrenia and to assess its relation with sociodemographic and clinical variables Methods: One hundered five patients diagnosed as having schizophrenia according to DSM-IV were recruited from Bakirkoy Research and Training Hospital for Psychiatry, Neurology and Neurosurgery, Treatment Education and Research Center for Psychotic Disorders. The data from the participants were collected using sociodemographic data form, Structured Clinical Interview for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders - Fourth Edition, Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAM-A), Barnes Akathisia Rating Scale (BARS). The collected data has been evaluated by using SPSS 10.0. Results: Among the participants, 23,80% (n=25) had no anxiety disorders whereas 47,61% (n=50) had diagnosis for more than one anxiety disorder; 4,76% (n=5) had panic disorder, 0,95% (n=1) had obsessivecompulsive disorder, 0,95% (n=1) had agorophobia, 4,76% (n=5) had social anxiety disorder, 14,28% (n=15) had special phobia, and 2,85% (n=3) had anxiety disorder otherwise unspecified as comorbid diagnosis along with schizophrenia. Anxiety symptoms were more frequent in patients with a story of childhood separation anxiety, school phobia and childhood maltreatment. Conclusion: These results emphasize the importance of screening for comorbid anxiety disorders in the prognosis and treatment of schizophrenia and display the need for new contemporary treatment modalities.