Evaluation of Worry in Patients with Schizophrenia and Persecutory Delusion Compared with General Population

Abstract

Anxiety and worry may be the key emotions involved in the formation of delusions of persecution, though other affective processes (depression, anger) may have some contribution. Prospective and retrospective clinical studies conducted have shown that in most cases, symptoms of anxiety, worry, depression, and irritability precede the positive symptoms within 2-4 weeks. Aims: The study was based on the assumption that people with schizophrenia have delusions of persecution and show high levels of worry. The research objective was to assess the presence of worry and measure its severity in these patients. Methods: The study was prospective and naturalistic in which paranoid schizophrenic patients selected were evaluated in a single psychiatric visit at enrollment between 1 January 2011 and 31 December 2011. 120 patients were analyzed in terms of demographics, age of onset of mental illness, duration of illness, severity of delusional ideation, the presence of worry, and antipsychotic treatment. The results were compared with a control group consisting of 60 healthy subjects, selected from the medical staff and the hospital auxiliary. Results: The study included 120 patients with schizophrenia paranoid, 84 women (70%), and 36 men (30%) women with a mean age of 36.07 years (SD 6.53) and 37.12 years (SD 2.98) in men. The age of onset of mental illness was lower for men (21.23 vs 22.36, p = 0.24). This proved to be statistically significant during the study, which was higher for women (p = 0.001) compared to men. It was a significant difference in worry for patients with schizophrenia and delusional ideation persecution, which was higher than the control group (51.98 vs 34.70, p = 0.0001). Conclusions: Study results show that worry is present at clinically significant levels in the group with schizophrenia compared with controls. Concern has an important impact by contributing to the distress associated with delusions of delusional conviction and severity of delusions of persecution.