Anxiety disorders in outpatients with schizophrenia: prevalence and impact on the subjective quality of life.
OBJECTIVE
To describe the prevalence of comorbid lifetime anxiety disorders in outpatients with schizophrenia and to compare the subjective quality of life of patients with and without comorbid anxiety disorders.


METHODS
Fifty-three outpatients were recruited. They were interviewed with the Anxiety Disorders section of the SCID for DSM-IV. Quality of life was assessed with the Sheehan disability scale (SDS).


RESULTS
Specific prevalences of anxiety comorbidity were: social phobia (17%), OCD (15.1%), GAD (9.4%), anxiety disorder NOS (7.5%), panic disorder (5.7%), specific phobia (5.7%), PTSD (3.8%), and agoraphobia (1.9%). Schizophrenic patients with comorbid anxiety disorder (41.5%) showed significantly higher scores in global scale (p=0.005), work subscale (p=0.007), and social life subscale (p=0.003) of the SDS than their counterparts without comorbid conditions.


CONCLUSIONS
Anxiety disorders may impose an additional burden to patients with schizophrenia, resulting in further decline in their subjective quality of life.
Braga
Raphael J
RJ
Institute of Psychiatry, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (IPUB-UFRJ), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. rjacques@drives.com
Mendlowicz
Mauro V
MV
Marrocos
Rogério P
RP
Figueira
Ivan L
IL
D000328:Adult; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D015897:Comorbidity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010045:Outpatients; D015995:Prevalence; D011788:Quality of Life; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000150:complications*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology