Negative Symptoms in Chronic Schizophrenia Relationship to Duration of Illness

1991 ◽  
Vol 159 (4) ◽  
pp. 495-499 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noreen Ring ◽  
Digby Tantam ◽  
Linda Montague ◽  
Julie Morris
Keyword(s):  
Negative Symptom ◽  
Negative Symptoms ◽  
Significant Positive Correlation ◽  
Rating Scales ◽  
Chronic Schizophrenia ◽  
Positive Correlation ◽  
Integral Component ◽  
Duration Of Illness ◽  
Symptom Scores

The frequency and distribution of negative symptoms in a sample of 40 patients admitted to hospital with RDC-definite schizophrenia were examined. There was a highly significant positive correlation between negative symptom scores obtained using three different rating scales, but the presence of negative symptoms was not significantly related to duration of illness or number of episodes of illness. These findings do not support a model of negative symptoms being the consequence of schizophrenic relapse, but are in favour of their being an integral component of the schizophrenic syndrome, as salient in the first as in later episodes.

Are Employment-Interview Skills a Correlate of Subtypes of Schizophrenia?

1989 ◽  
Vol 65 (3) ◽  
pp. 951-960 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Charisiou ◽  
Henry J. Jackson ◽  
Gregory J. Boyle ◽  
Philip Burgess ◽  
I. Harry Minas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cluster Analysis ◽  
Negative Symptom ◽  
Negative Symptoms ◽  
Employment Interview ◽  
Global Measure ◽  
Self Confidence ◽  
Symptom Scores ◽  
Verbal Content ◽  
Discharge From Hospital ◽  
Positive And Negative Symptoms

46 inpatients with a DSM-III diagnosis of schizophrenia were assessed in the week prior to discharge from hospital on measures of positive and negative symptoms and on 12 measures of employment interview skills (i.e., eye contact, facial gestures, body posture, verbal content, voice volume, length of speech, motivation, self-confidence, ability to communicate, manifest adjustment, manifest intelligence, over-all interview skill), and a global measure of employability. A cluster analysis based on the total positive and negative symptom scores produced two groups. The group with the lower mean negative symptom score exhibited better employment-interview skills and higher ratings on employability.

Positive and negative symptoms/syndromes in schizophrenia: reliability and validity of different diagnostic systems

1995 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Peralta ◽  
M. J. Cuesta ◽  
J. De Leon
Keyword(s):  
Internal Consistency ◽  
Negative Symptom ◽  
Social Adjustment ◽  
Negative Symptoms ◽  
Rating Scales ◽  
Reliability And Validity ◽  
Poor Response ◽  
Diagnostic Systems ◽  
Deficit Syndrome ◽  
Positive And Negative Symptoms

SynopsisThe paper explores the reliability, concurrent validity and overlap of some positive/negative symptom rating scales and typological criteria in 100 schizophrenic patients. Rating scales include Andreasen's Scales for the Assessment of Positive and Negative Symptoms, Abrams and Taylor's Scale for Emotional Blunting, and Kay's Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale. Criteria for categorizing individual patients include Andreasen's and Kay's criteria for positive and negative types of schizophrenia as well as Carpenter's criteria for the deficit syndrome. The correlations among positive as well as among negative scales were high. The agreement among criteria tended to be lower. Both positive scales showed low internal consistency. Kay's negative scale had the greatest internal consistency, which suggests that it is measuring a homogeneous syndrome. All negative symptom scales and categorical syndromes identified a group of patients who were single and exhibited schizoid or schizotypal pre-morbid personality disorders, poor premorbid sexual/social adjustment, poor response to neuroleptics and poor prognosis.

scholarly journals Efficacy of antidepressants in treating the negative symptoms of chronic schizophrenia: meta-analysis

2010 ◽  
Vol 197 (3) ◽  
pp. 174-179 ◽  
Author(s):  
Surendra P. Singh ◽  
Vidhi Singh ◽  
Nilamadhab Kar ◽  
Kelvin Chan
Keyword(s):  
Randomised Controlled Trials ◽  
Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors ◽  
Negative Symptoms ◽  
Rating Scales ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Chronic Schizophrenia ◽  
Mean Difference ◽  
Controlled Trials ◽  
Clinical Issue ◽  
Randomised Controlled

BackgroundTreatment of negative symptoms in chronic schizophrenia continues to be a major clinical issue.AimsTo analyse the efficacy of add-on antidepressants for the treatment of negative symptoms of chronic schizophrenia.MethodSystematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials comparing the effect of antidepressants and placebo on the negative symptoms of chronic schizophrenia, measured through standardised rating scales. Outcome was measured as standardised mean difference between end-of-trial and baseline scores of negative symptoms.ResultsThere were 23 trials from 22 publications (n = 819). The antidepressants involved were selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, mirtazapine, reboxetine, mianserin, trazodone and ritanserin; trials on other antidepressants were not available. The overall standardised mean difference was moderate (–0.48) in favour of antidepressants and subgroup analysis revealed significant responses for fluoxetine, trazodone and ritanserin.ConclusionsAntidepressants along with antipsychotics are more effective in treating the negative symptoms of schizophrenia than antipsychotics alone.

scholarly journals Negative Symptom Domains Are Associated With Verbal Learning in Adolescents With Early Onset Psychosis

2022 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynn Mørch-Johnsen ◽  
Runar Elle Smelror ◽  
Dimitrios Andreou ◽  
Claudia Barth ◽  
Cecilie Johannessen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Factor Analysis ◽  
Negative Symptom ◽  
Early Onset ◽  
Negative Symptoms ◽  
Factor Model ◽  
Verbal Learning ◽  
Confirmatory Factor ◽  
Symptom Domains ◽  
Symptom Scores ◽  
Early Onset Psychosis

Background: Early-onset psychosis (EOP) is among the leading causes of disease burden in adolescents. Negative symptoms and cognitive deficits predicts poorer functional outcome. A better understanding of the association between negative symptoms and cognitive impairment may inform theories on underlying mechanisms and elucidate targets for development of new treatments. Two domains of negative symptoms have been described in adult patients with schizophrenia: apathy and diminished expression, however, the factorial structure of negative symptoms has not been investigated in EOP. We aimed to explore the factorial structure of negative symptoms and investigate associations between cognitive performance and negative symptom domains in adolescents with EOP. We hypothesized that (1) two negative symptom factors would be identifiable, and that (2) diminished expression would be more strongly associated with cognitive performance, similar to adult psychosis patients.Methods: Adolescent patients with non-affective EOP (n = 169) were included from three cohorts: Youth-TOP, Norway (n = 45), Early-Onset Study, Norway (n = 27) and Adolescent Schizophrenia Study, Mexico (n = 97). An exploratory factor analysis was performed to investigate the underlying structure of negative symptoms (measured with the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS)). Factor-models were further assessed using confirmatory factor analyses. Associations between negative symptom domains and six cognitive domains were assessed using multiple linear regression models controlling for age, sex and cohort. The neurocognitive domains from the MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery included: speed of processing, attention, working memory, verbal learning, visual learning, and reasoning and problem solving.Results: The exploratory factor analysis of PANSS negative symptoms suggested retaining only a single factor, but a forced two factor solution corroborated previously described factors of apathy and diminished expression in adult-onset schizophrenia. Results from confirmatory factor analysis indicated a better fit for the two-factor model than for the one-factor model. For both negative symptom domains, negative symptom scores were inversely associated with verbal learning scores.Conclusion: The results support the presence of two domains of negative symptoms in EOP; apathy and diminished expression. Future studies on negative symptoms in EOP should examine putative differential effects of these symptom domains. For both domains, negative symptom scores were significantly inversely associated with verbal learning.

Assessment of negative symptoms beyond schizophrenia

2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (S1) ◽  
pp. S69-S70
Author(s):  
S. Kaiser
Keyword(s):  
Negative Symptom ◽  
Negative Symptoms ◽  
Rating Scales ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Skewed Distribution ◽  
First Episode ◽  
Measurement Instruments ◽  
Symptom Scale ◽  
Schizotypal Personality ◽  
Competing Interest

IntroductionNegative symptoms have long been recognized as a hallmark of schizophrenia. Newer evidence suggests that negative symptoms can be observed in persons with other disorders or even in non-clinical populations. However, most negative symptom scales are designed to identify clinically relevant symptoms, which might lead to underappreciation of subclinical symptom expression.ObjectivesThe aim of the present study was to establish distributional properties of well-established negative symptom scales in comparison with the newly developed Zurich Negative Symptom Scale, which employs a fully dimensional and continuous approach.MethodsWe included participants with established schizophrenia (n = 65), first-episode psychosis (n = 25), schizotypal personality traits (n = 29) and remitted bipolar disorder (n = 20). Assessment of negative symptoms was conducted with the Zurich Negative Symptom Scale and compared to establish rating scales.ResultsIn this broad sample, measurement of negative symptoms with established negative symptom scales lead to a highly skewed distribution. In other words, established negative symptom scales were able to identify negative symptoms in some participants in the non-schizophrenia spectrum, but a differentiation of negative symptom severity in the subclinical range was not possible. In contrast, the distribution of negative symptoms measured with the Zurich Negative Symptom scale approached normality.ConclusionsNegative symptoms can be observed outside the schizophrenia diagnosis. However, in order to fully explore the continuity of negative symptoms, measurement instruments need to be designed to cover the full range of symptomatology starting at a subclinical level. We propose the newly developed Zurich Negative Symptom Scale as a useful tool in this respect.Disclosure of interestThe author has not supplied his declaration of competing interest.

Schizophrenia with Good and Poor Outcome II: Cerebral Ventricular Size and its Clinical Significance

1985 ◽  
Vol 146 (3) ◽  
pp. 239-246 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. O. Williams ◽  
M. A. Reveley ◽  
T. Kolakowska ◽  
M. Ardern ◽  
B. M. Mandelbrote
Keyword(s):  
Affective Disorder ◽  
Clinical Features ◽  
Negative Symptoms ◽  
Cognitive Deficit ◽  
Chronic Schizophrenia ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Ventricular Size ◽  
Chronic Patients ◽  
Brain Scans ◽  
Duration Of Illness

SummaryComputed tomography brain scans were carried out on 40 patients with schizophrenia or schizo-affective disorder of 2–20 years duration. Ventricular-brain ratio (VBR) was significantly greater than that of the control group. In six patients the VBR exceeded the control mean + 2 s.d. Among the 13 whose VBR was more than 1 s.d. above the control mean, none had schizo-affective disorder, all but one had chronic illness, and patients with negative symptoms and those with premorbid schizoid traits were over-represented. VBR was unrelated to medical history, age, duration of illness, or neuroleptic treatment. It was not associated with neurological ‘soft’ signs or cognitive deficit. Among chronic patients, clinical features showed no association with ventricular size. The findings suggest that large ventricles may be related to a sub-type of chronic schizophrenia rather than to its particular clinical features.

The Positive: Negative Dichotomy in Schizophrenia

1990 ◽  
Vol 157 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. M. Mortimer ◽  
C. E. Lund ◽  
P. J. McKenna
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Negative Symptom ◽  
Negative Symptoms ◽  
Thought Disorder ◽  
Motor Disorder ◽  
Positive Symptoms ◽  
Formal Thought Disorder ◽  
Symptom Scores ◽  
Schizophrenic Patients ◽  
Positive And Negative Symptoms

Two studies are reported. In the first, of 62 schizophrenic patients, no correlation between negative symptom scores (rated blindly) and any measure of positive symptoms was found. This independence was confirmed by factor and cluster analyses, which left the question of a third ‘disorganisation’ class of schizophrenic symptoms open. In the second study, of 80 patients, formal thought disorder separated unequivocally into ‘positive formal thought disorder’ and ‘alogia’ syndromes on the basis of correlations with positive and negative symptoms. Catatonic motor disorder also showed evidence of a corresponding positive: negative division, although this only emerged when severity or chronicity of illness was controlled for. Cognitive impairment showed a broad range of affiliations and its particular correlation with negative symptoms was perhaps artefactual.

Relationship between Neuroleptic Dose and Positive and Negative Symptoms

1994 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 481-482 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick B. Johnson ◽  
Lewis A. Opler ◽  
Paul M. Ramirez ◽  
Robert Malgady
Keyword(s):  
Side Effects ◽  
Negative Symptom ◽  
Negative Symptoms ◽  
Zero Order ◽  
Standardized Assessments ◽  
Symptom Scores ◽  
Medication Dose ◽  
Schizophrenic Patients ◽  
Positive And Negative Symptoms

The present study explored possible connections between neuroleptic dose and the positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenic patients. Zero-order correlations between medication dose as measured in CPZ equivalent units and standardized assessments of positive (hallucinations, delusions) and negative (blunted affect, poor rapport) symptoms were carried out on 28 hospitalized schizophrenics. While dose was positively related to over-all negative symptom scores as well as specific negative symptoms, no relation was found with positive scores. The discussion focused on the possibility that negative symptoms might represent medication-induced side effects and the need for further research.

Attributive Projection: Test of Defensive Hypotheses

1976 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 707-711 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Halpern ◽  
Marvin Goldschmitt
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Significant Positive Correlation ◽  
Rating Scales ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Positive Correlation ◽  
Self And Other ◽  
Positive Traits ◽  
Trait Rating

On the basis of a defensive model of attributive projection, it was hypothesized that subjects with high self-esteem would project more acknowledged negative traits onto a favorable other than would subjects with low self-esteem. It was also hypothesized that acknowledged negative traits would lead to more anxiety and would therefore be projected more than acknowledged positive or neutral traits. 52 college students described a favorable other and themselves according to a list of trait-rating scales. They also judged whether each of the traits was positive, negative, or neutral. There was a significant positive correlation of .34 between self and other ratings. Although attributive projection occurred, further analyses did not support the hypotheses. Acknowledged positive traits were projected significantly more than acknowledged negative traits.

scholarly journals Treatments of Negative Symptoms in Schizophrenia: Meta-Analysis of 168 Randomized Placebo-Controlled Trials

2014 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 892-899 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paolo Fusar-Poli ◽  
Evangelos Papanastasiou ◽  
Daniel Stahl ◽  
Matteo Rocchetti ◽  
William Carpenter ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Negative Symptom ◽  
Negative Symptoms ◽  
Rating Scale ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Controlled Trials ◽  
Pharmacological Agents ◽  
Duration Of Illness ◽  
Clinically Significant ◽  
Q Statistic

Abstract Objectives Existing treatments for schizophrenia can improve positive symptoms, but it is unclear if they have any impact on negative symptoms. This meta-analysis was conducted to assess the efficacy of available treatments for negative symptoms in schizophrenia. Methods All randomized-controlled trials of interventions for negative symptoms in schizophrenia until December 2013 were retrieved; 168 unique and independent placebo-controlled trials were used. Negative symptom scores at baseline and follow-up, duration of illness, doses of medication, type of interventions, and sample demographics were extracted. Heterogeneity was addressed with the I2 and Q statistic. Standardized mean difference in values of the Negative Symptom Rating Scale used in each study was calculated as the main outcome measure. Results 6503 patients in the treatment arm and 5815 patients in the placebo arm were included. No evidence of publication biases found. Most treatments reduced negative symptoms at follow-up relative to placebo: second-generation antipsychotics: −0.579 (−0.755 to −0.404); antidepressants: −0.349 (−0.551 to −0.146); combinations of pharmacological agents: −0.518 (−0.757 to −0.279); glutamatergic medications: −0.289 (−0.478 to −0.1); psychological interventions: −0.396 (−0.563 to −0.229). No significant effect was found for first-generation antipsychotics: −0.531 (−1.104 to 0.041) and brain stimulation: −0.228 (−0.775 to 0.319). Effects of most treatments were not clinically meaningful as measured on Clinical Global Impression Severity Scale. Conclusions and Relevance Although some statistically significant effects on negative symptoms were evident, none reached the threshold for clinically significant improvement.

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