Clinical characteristics and influencing factors of schizophrenia

Objective:To investigate the clinical characteristics and related influencing factors of schizophrenia. Methods:A total of 630 patients with schizophrenia in a Secondary Grade A psychiatric hospital in Tongling were recruited using convenience sampling method. Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI), Clinician-Rated Dimensions of Psychosis Symptom Severity (CRDPSS) and Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) were used for diagnosis and assessment. Analysis of variance, Pearson correlation analysis and multiple linear regression were conducted with SAS 9.4 software for statistical analysis. Results:Patients with schizophrenia who had different clinical characteristics showed variations in CRDPSS (F=22.46, P＜0.01) and PANSS (F=7.99, P＜0.01) total scores. Patients with persistent deterioration had the highest total CRDPSS score (11.88 ± 4.16) and PANSS score (75.63±23.95). Factors including age, sex, education level, family size, waist-to-hip ratio, marital status, working status, smoking, age of first diagnosis, age of first treatment, total number of schizophrenia episodes, total number of hospitalizations, number of drug withdrawals, onset patterns and disease courses were associated with the total score of CRDPSS scale and PANSS scale, and with their every dimension score. Conclusion: Patients with schizophrenia with persistent deterioration have more severe symptoms. Waist-to-hip ratio, average daily cigarette smoking, number of drug withdrawals, total number of hospitalizations, and chronic onset are risk factors for severe symptoms in patients with schizophrenia.