Depression Occurring During the Course of Recovery from Schizophrenic Symptoms

Schizophrenic patients followed longitudinally from an acute psychotic phase to a remission were rated as more depressed during the period following improvement of schizophrenic symptoms than during the hospital course as a whole. The period following remission of symptoms may be a period of relatively high risk of suicide in schizophrenic patients. One patient treated with phenothiazines after a period of severe psychosis showed no elevation of 17-hydroxycorticosteroids during the depressed periods as compared with a preceding nonpsychotic and nondepressed period. 17-hydroxycorticosteroids were elevated during the psychotic phase both as compared with normal values and as compared with the remainder of the hospital stay.