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This page is an AI-assisted Turkish summary of the study presented at the 26th World Congress of Psychiatry. The study belongs to the presenting authors; please refer to the original source when citing it.

EV1194

Course of anxiety symptoms in patients with an acute psychotic episode receiving antipsychotic treatment

EVOLUTION OF ANXIETY SYMPTOMS IN PATIENTS WITH ACUTE PSYCHOTIC EPISODES RECEIVING ANTIPSYCHOTIC TREATMENT

Anxiety, which is universally observed during an acute psychotic episode, decreases significantly with antipsychotic treatment in parallel with psychotic symptoms, but persists as residual anxiety in some patients.

The aim of the study was to assess anxiety severity during an acute psychotic episode using standardized scales, examine the relationship between anxiety and psychotic symptoms, and monitor changes during antipsychotic treatment. In a clinical observational study, 20 patients aged 18 to 45 years with a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia were assessed using the PANSS, HAM-A, SAS, and CGI-S/CGI-I at admission and after 21 to 25 days of antipsychotic treatment; benzodiazepines and anxiolytics were excluded from the protocol to allow observation of treatment-related changes in anxiety. Women accounted for 65% of the sample (13 of 20 patients), the mean age was approximately 32 years, and 100% of patients exhibited signs of anxiety at enrollment. Mean baseline scores were 127.45 ± 1.82 for the PANSS, 64.15 ± 2.25 for the SAS, and 25.4 ± 0.93 for the HAM-A. At the final assessment, scores had decreased to 92.5 for the PANSS, 45.9 for the SAS, and 18.2 for the HAM-A, with statistically significant reductions in anxiety on both the SAS and HAM-A (p < 0.001). Regarding the distribution of HAM-A severity categories, no patients were within the normal range at baseline, whereas 7 patients were within the normal range and 10 had mild anxiety at the final assessment; none of the 5 patients with severe anxiety at baseline remained in that category at the end, and the number with moderate anxiety decreased from 9 to 3. At baseline, the strongest correlation was observed between anxiety and positive psychotic symptoms (0.63), followed by general symptoms (0.47) and negative symptoms (0.17). The authors state that the anxiety syndrome is an integral component of the psychotic process in schizophrenia, that its early recognition and targeted management may support functional recovery and social reintegration, and that residual anxiety persisting after psychosis subsides requires follow-up assessment.

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