Association between subjective well-being and depressive symptoms in treatment-resistant schizophrenia before and after treatment with clozapine.

BACKGROUND We examined the relationship between subjective well-being and depressive symptoms in patients with treatment-resistant schizophrenia before and after treatment with clozapine to contribute to the growing body of research regarding the determinants of patients' perspective of their own well-being in schizophrenia. METHODS Forty patients with treatment-resistant schizophrenia were comprehensively evaluated for subjective well-being, schizophrenic symptoms, and depressive symptoms before and 8 weeks after the initiation of treatment with clozapine. Correlation analysis and Fisher's z-transformation statistics were performed. RESULTS There were significant improvements in all Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) factor scores and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) score over the treatment period (P<.05). Before clozapine administration, the subjective well-being score had significant negative correlations with the PANSS depression factor score (P<.05) and the BDI score (P<.05). After clozapine treatment, the subjective well-being score still had significant negative correlations with the PANSS depression factor score (P<.05) and the BDI score (P<.05) and no new associations emerged with treatment. Fisher's z-transformation statistics revealed that the correlations between the subjective well-being score and the depression score were not significantly different before and after clozapine treatment. CONCLUSIONS These results indicate that depressive symptoms are significantly associated with low subjective well-being in patients with treatment-resistant schizophrenia. The association was equally significant before and after treatment with clozapine, suggesting that the relationship does not change with clozapine treatment, even when depressive symptoms improve significantly, and that there may be a common pathophysiological basis for depressive symptoms and the subjective appraisal of well-being in schizophrenia.