I think depression was a prodromal symptom in my case. I experienced hallucinations at an early age, but depression appeared about the same time and was much worse to me than psychosis. Depression stayed in the foreground and psychosis stayed in the background. I would still rather be psychotic than depressed. I attempted suicide 3 times and was hospitalized many times, more for depression than sz. I had 19 ECT sessions, to no avail. My doctor agrees that I will most likely be on meds for depression as well as sz for the rest of my life. I can do that. Yes, I can do that.
Carolyn
You often see "flat affect" listed in the negative symptoms of schizophrenia and I think this is automatically chalked up to depression by a lot of psychiatrists. But absence of the facial expressions of emotion does not necessarily mean depression and could be tied in with the difficulty some with schizophrenia experience in reading the emotions of others. And I know I felt safer when no one could tell what I was thinking or feeling; hence, flat affect.
That said, depression IS nevertheless of great concern to many of us with schizophrenia. And for me, Zyprexa was a great help in controlling the depression although it was given as an antipsychotic. Now that I am on Saphris, I do not seem to have the same "protection" against depression and feel it more acutely. But I have fewer of the negative symptoms of schizophrenia. Odd.
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Hi Jerry,
When I was released from the hospital I was depressed so my doctor put me on Pamelor for six months. I was depressed because I got sick again.
At any rate, because of the risk of suicide in people with SZ, it appears depression shouldn't go untreated, right?
Regards,
Christina
Hi Christina,
It should absolutely be taken seriously and treated accordingly in my view. Relatively little seems to be known about depression/schizophrenia. The danger is that some doctors view depression as just another symptom of schizophrenia and therefore overlook the symptoms. It's good to see your symptoms were properly acknowledged.