Depression, Low Self-Esteem Worsen Schizophrenia Symptoms

British researchers studying 100 schizophrenic patients who had recently experienced a relapse into psychosis found that depression, low self-esteem and negative views about others contribute to more severe auditory and persecutory hallucinations.

Patients were assessed both for schizophrenic symptoms such as hallucinations and for signs of depression, low self-esteem and negative views of others. Researchers found that individuals with depression and low self-esteem had more severe auditory hallucinations featuring more intensely negative content. Where these symptoms were combined with negative views about others, individuals also experienced more severe and distressing persecutory delusions. Meanwhile, severe grandiose delusions were directly related to higher self-esteem and inversely related to depression.

ABSTRACT: Emotion and psychosis: Links between depression, self-esteem, negative schematic beliefs and delusions and hallucinations