Gender differences in 542 Chinese inpatients with schizophrenia.

Objective: To investigate gender differences in the onset and other clinical features of Han Chinese inpatients with schizophrenia.

Methods: Five-hundred-and-forty-two Han Chinese inpatients with DSM-IV schizophrenia were assessed with the Positive and Negative Symptoms Scale (PANSS), the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS), the Global Assessment of Function scale (GAF) and locally-developed standardized data collection forms. Comparisons were made between male and female patients.

Results: This is the largest study of gender differences in schizophrenia to be conducted in a Chinese population. In our sample, we found that schizophrenia onset occurred at a significantly earlier age in male patients compared to female patients and that late-onset schizophrenia (as defined by onset> or =45 years) was significantly more common in female patients. The paranoid subtype of schizophrenia was less common in male patients, males received higher daily doses of antipsychotics and demonstrated a different pattern of antipsychotic usage, being less likely to be treated with SGAs. Further, cigarette smoking was more common in male patients and male patients were more likely to be single or never married. By contrast, female patients showed a different pattern of ongoing symptoms and severity, being more likely to have persistent positive symptoms, more severe positive and affective symptoms, and a greater number of suicide attempts whereas male patients were more likely to show severe deterioration over time.

Conclusions: There are notable gender differences in the age at onset, treatment and a range of other clinical features in Han Chinese patients with schizophrenia. Such differences were largely consistent with those reported in Western studies. These gender differences need to be considered in the assessment and management of Chinese patients with schizophrenia.