Negative symptoms in chronic schizophrenia: relationship to duration of illness

The so-called ''negative,'' or ''deficit'' symptoms of schizophrenia include flat moods, alogia (loss or lack of speech), apathy, lack of pleasure, and attentional impairment. These symptoms have been the subject of increasing research attention of late, but their relationship to schizophrenia remains unclear. Some consider the presence of negative symptoms in schizophrenics to be associated with the condition in its chronic aspect, having a later onset but greater prevalence over time. Others characterize negative symptoms as associated with the residual phase of schizophrenia, or the baseline to which schizophrenics return after an acute phase of active (''positive'') symptoms. The frequency and distribution of negative symptoms are reported for 40 schizophrenic patients; the symptoms were examined with respect to the duration of illness and the number of episodes of illness a patient had. Three measures of negative symptoms were used: the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms, the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale, and the Negative Symptoms Rating Scale. The three scales yielded highly consistent ratings of negative symptoms in these patients. However, the presence of negative symptoms was not significantly correlated with duration of illness or the number of episodes of acute symptomatology. The data suggest that negative symptoms are not indicative of chronicity, nor do they characteristically have late onset or greater prevalence over time. They simply seem to be a component of the ''schizophrenic syndrome.'' (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)