Interpersonal distances, coping strategies and psychopathology in patients with depression and schizophrenia

Table 1 Basic characteristics of patients and controls

Characteristics	Depressiongroup (n = 70)	Schizophreniagroup (n = 51)	Controlgroup (n = 61)	Significancetest
Gender
Male	29 (41.4)	36 (70.6)	30 (49.2)	χ2 = 9.1, df = 2, P = 0.01
Female	41 (58.6)	15 (29.4)	31 (50.8)
Age (yr)	37.4 ± 13.4	33.8 ± 10.5	35.7 ± 11.3	F = 1.09, df = 129, P = 0.27
Marital status
Single	34 (48.6)	40 (78.4)	24 (39.3)	χ2 = 19.1, df = 4, P < 0.001
Married	26 (37.1)	6 (11.8)	31 (50.8)
Divorced/separated/widowed	10 (14.3)	5 (9.8)	6 (9.8)
Schooling (yr)	13.4 ± 1.7	11.2 ± 3.0	14.1 ± 2.3	F = 1.96, df = 129, P < 0.05
Age at onset (yr, range)	35.5 ± 13.6 (15-39)	25.3 ± 9.4 (14-29)	--	t = 4.61, df = 119, P < 0.01
Duration of disorder (mo, range)	12.8 ± 7.7 (1-36)	28.0 ± 13.4 (6-131)	--	--
Depressive symptoms1	13.3 ± 5.7	--	1.2 ± 1.9	t = 15.82, df = 129, P < 0.001
PANSS2 total score	--	54.5 ± 18.5	--	--
Positive syndrome	--	11.0 ± 5.5	--	--
Negative syndrome	--	15.8 ± 7.9	--	--
General psychopathology	--	27.6 ± 9.6	--	--

¹Beck depression inventory- short form (Beck et al[47]);

²Positive and negative syndrome scale (Kay et al[48]). Data are expressed as n (%) and mean ± SD.

Table 2 Comfortable interpersonal distance from stimuli with different emotional valence and coping patterns (coping inventory for stressful situations) across the study groups

Variable	Depression group(n = 70)	Schizophrenia group(n = 51)	Nonpatient group(n = 61)	ANOVAF	P value	Tukey post-hocsingle comparisons1
Interpersonal distance (from)
Family members	115.5 ± 80.6	99.2 ± 57.5	80.4 ± 48.8	3	0.05	D > N
Self-images	129.1 ± 83.6	103.7 ± 75.9	59.5 ± 56.0	9.02	0.001	D > N < S
Significant others	192.5 ± 68.1	178.0 ± 68.3	158.8 ± 63.9	3.76	0.03	D > N
Neutral people	270.5 ± 63.1	219.2 ± 73.7	268.8 ± 76.6	9.02	0.001	D > S < N
Hostile images	336.2 ± 44.6	312.1 ± 75.9	348.0 ± 20.9	4.92	0.01	D > S < N
Coping pattern
Task-oriented	3.5 ± 0.8	3.1 ± 0.9	3.8 ± 0.7	7.45	0.001	D > S < N
Emotion-oriented	3.2 ± 0.9	3.0 ± 0.8	2.3 ± 0.8	14.01	0.0001	D > N < S
Avoidance-oriented	2.8 ± 1.0	3.0 ± 1.0	3.0 ± 0.9	0.82	0.44	D = S = N
Distraction	2.6 ± 1.2	2.7 ± 1.2	2.4 ± 1.1	0.53	0.59	D = S = N
Social diversion	3.0 ± 1.2	3.3 ± 1.2	3.6 ± 1.1	2.99	0.05	D < N

Mean score ± SD are shown.

¹All comparisons are significant at the 0.05 level.

Table 3 Significant Pearson correlations between comfortable interpersonal distance and specific symptoms measures

Symptoms	Distance from
	Family members	Significant others	Self-images	Neutral persons	Threat-related persons
Schizophrenia sample (n = 51)
PANSS items:
Conceptual disorganization		-0.32a		-0.30a
Excitement					0.35b
Suspiciousness/persecution					0.26a
Anxiety					0.27a
Guilt feelings			0.28a
Tension					0.33a
Motor retardation					0.34a
Lack of judgment and insight					-0.34b
Depression sample (n = 70)
BDI items:
Sadness		0.28a	0.40b
Guilt		0.26a	0.28a	0.29a
Self-dislike		0.44d	0.32b	0.30b	0.30b
Self-harm			0.28a
Social withdrawal	0.26a	0.40b		0.41b
Indecisiveness			0.23a
Self-image change		0.28a	0.24a	0.32b
Work difficulty			0.23a
Fatigability			0.23a

PANSS: Positive and negative syndrome scale (Kay et al[47]); BDI: Beck depression inventory (Beck et al[48]). Comfortable interpersonal distance vs specific symptoms measures:

^aP < 0.05,

^bP < 0.01.

Table 4 Multiple regression models for predicting the severity of general psychopathology¹ in patients with schizophrenia and current depressive symptoms in patients with depression by regulation strategies

Predictor variables	Schizophrenia1				Depression2
	β	t value(β= 0)	P value	Total% varianceaccounting for	β	t value(β= 0)	P value	Total% varianceaccounting for
Interpersonal distances3 from
Family members	0.22	7.3	0.007	7.1	0.28	6.8	0.011	9.5
Hostile images	0.29	12.7	< 0.001	11.8	0.01	1.8	--	--
Neutral people	0.04	0.15	0.148	--	0.23	9.1	0.012	6
Self-images	-0.06	0.35	0.179	--	0.32	7.5	< 0.001	13.4
Significant others	-0.05	1.3	0.091	--	--	6.2	0.017	8.7
Model properties	R2 = 0.48, adjusted R2 = 0.36, F = 4.2, P < .001				R2 = 0.54, adjusted R2 = 0.37, F = 5.7, P < 0.001
Coping patterns4
Task-oriented	-0.31	6.1	0.016	8.8	-0.17	2.8	0.009	4.2
Emotion-oriented	0.23	5.4	0.025	7.2	0.11	4.7	0.032	7.2
Social diversion	0.17	2.8	0.097	--	-0.09	5.1	0.027	7.6
Model properties	R2 = 0.45, adjusted R2 = 0.34, F = 3.3, P < 0.001				R2 = 0.35, adjusted R2 = 0.23, F = 3.1, P = 0.002

¹PANSS: Positive and negative syndrome scale (Kay et al[47]);

²BDI: Beck depression inventory (Beck et al[48]);

³CID: Comfortable interpersonal distance;

⁴CISS: Coping inventory for stressful situations.