Cardiovascular Psychiatry and Neurology

Clinical Study

Cardiac Responses during Picture Viewing in Young Male Patients with Schizophrenia

Table 1

Demographic characteristics of the patient and control groups.


	Medicated patients ()	Antipsychotic-free patients ()	Controls ()

Age (mean ± Sd)	22 ± 4	21 ± 6	23 ± 4
Smokers (Yes/No)^a	20/4	7/2	8/32
Duration of illness (months ± Sd)^b	16 ± 19	3 ± 3
Duration of current medication use (weeks ± Sd)	4 ± 4
PANSS^c(mean ± Sd)
Positive symptoms	17 ± 6	23 ± 6
Negative symptoms	15 ± 5	21 ± 5
General psychopathology	33 ± 9	43 ± 12

Total	65 ± 16	87 ± 14

PANSS: positive and negative syndrome scale; Sd: standard deviation.
^aThere were significantly more smokers in both patient groups than in the control group ().
^bThe duration of illness was significantly shorter in antipsychotic-free versus medicated patients ().
^cAntipsychotic-free patients had higher PANSS scores for all subscales than medicated patients (positive: ; negative ; general psychopathology ; total score ).