Abstract
“Schizophrenia and anxiety disorders”: epidemiological and clinical study of a
schizophrenic population followed at the psychiatry department of the University Hospital
Tlemcen between 2010-2012.
Introduction
The objective of this study was to determine the frequency of anxiety disorders in patients
with schizophrenia and to compare sociodémographic and clinical characteristics (quality of
life and insight) of patients with and without comorbid anxiety disorders.
Method:
It is a cross-sectional descriptive study, conducted on a sample of 100 patients followed at our
consultants in psychiatry. Our sample was split into two groups, those with an anxiety
disorder and those without comorbid anxiety disorder.
A comparison between the two groups was carried out on the socio-demographic
characteristics, clinical, quality of life (S-QoL scale) and insight (scale Markova).
Results:
28% of patients with schizophrenia have a comorbid anxiety disorder, including panic
disorder 13%, 5% a obssessionnel compulsive disorder, social anxiety 5%, 4% post-traumatic
stress disorder, and 1% disorder generalized anxiety.
This comorbidity exposed to the risk of more frequent hospitalization, a higher positive
symptoms and excessive consumption of alcohol and benzodiazipines.
The quality of life is impaired in patients with anxiety disorders, with scores in SQoL (overall
score) 51 for the first group and 62 for the second group (p = 0.002).
The most affected dimensions were self-esteem, psychological well being, Wellbeing physics
and reality and Resilience.
Patients with anxiety disorders have a better insight by-compared to those without anxiety
disorders, each with scores of 19 and 12 (p = 0.05).
Conclusion:
The systematic search of such comorbidity, allow early diagnosis and appropriate care, which
also improve the well-psychotic anxiety symptomatology and quality of life.
Key words:
Comorbidité- anxiety disorder- schizophrenia--insight -quality of life.