Instruments of depression assessment in schizophrenia

Abstract

Lately, numerous reports have focused on the evaluation of depressive symptoms of schizophrenia. This assessment has been hampered by the temporal variability of the depressive symptoms and by their overlap with both the negative symptoms of schizophrenia and the extrapyramidal effects of the antipsychotic treatment. So far, classical assessment instruments such as the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) or the Montgomery-Asberg Rating Depression Scale (MARDS) have been used in those patients suffering from schizophrenia with depressive symptomatology, despite the important limitations concerning their use in subpopulations other than the one they have been developed for. New specific depression scales for schizophrenia such as the Calgary Depression Scale for Schizophrenics (CDSS) seems to have more efficiency and ability to distinguish between depression, negative and extrapyramidal symptoms. The present paper reviews the instruments used so far on the assessment of depressive symptomatology in schizophrenic patients.