Affective temperaments of Lebanese patients with schizophrenia: comparison by gender and severity of psychosis.

Objectives: Our aim in this study was to identify affective temperament differences utilizing the TEMPS-A in a large sample size of Lebanese patients with schizophrenia and compare them to healthy controls. Gender differences, demographic factors and degree of psychotic symptoms were also considered. A cross-sectional study was conducted at the Psychiatric Hospital of the Cross (PHC) from March to June 2019. Two-hundred fifty chronic patients with schizophrenia were compared to 250 healthy controls randomly chosen from the general population.

Results: Patients with schizophrenia significantly had higher mean depressive, cyclothymic, irritable and anxious temperament scores compared to healthy controls. Healthy controls significantly had a higher mean hyperthymic temperament score compared to patients with schizophrenia. In the group of patients with schizophrenia exclusively, females scored higher in terms of depressive, cyclothymic and anxious temperaments compared to males. In the group of healthy controls, males scored higher in terms of hyperthymic and irritable temperaments compared to females, whereas a higher mean depressive and anxious temperament scores were significantly found in females compared to males. In addition, higher PANSS total scores, as well as higher positive, negative and general subscales scores were significantly associated with higher depressive, cyclothymic, irritable and anxious temperament scores.