Gender related differences in demographic and clinical manifestations in patients suffering from various subtypes of schizophrenia

Abstract

Introduction: Schizophrenia is devastating neuropsychiatric disorder that has no clearly identified etiology. The subtypes of schizophrenia are distinguished by the prevalent symptomatology. The aim of this study was to determine gender related differences in demographic and clinical manifestations in patients suffering from various subtypes of schizophrenia.
Methods: A longitudinal, prospective,original,clinical investigation first in our local area, with application of Structured Clinical Interview for DSM IV Axis I Disorders (SCID I) was used in this work. The study included 121 patients during five years period. Patients were recruited as consecutive admissions to the Psychiatric clinic, from all parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina, mostly Sarajevo region.
Results: The study was conducted on a group of schizophrenic patients which consisted of 52.1% male and 47.9% female patients. Average duration of the episode was about a month. Majority of patients (male) were in the group of disorganized (hebephrenic) schizophrenia. The duration of current psychotic episode was similar in all three groups regarding subtypes of schizophrenia. Psychotic episodes appear equally in both gender (higher in disorganized group) with a statistically significant difference between all groups (p<0.001).
Conclusions: Male group patients showed tendency to be younger than women. Most of the schizophrenic individuals start to suffer from this disease between age of 20 and 39 years. Male group patients suffered mostly of disorganized (hebephrenic) type of schizophrenia. Duration of psychotic episode was proportionally the same in both groups while in male group the highest number of episodes was found in group of disorganized schizophrenia.