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Positive and Negative Symptom Course in Chronic Community-Based Patients

A Two-Year Prospective Study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Donald M. Quinlan ,
David Schuldberg ,
Hal Morgenstern  and
William Glazer
Donald M. Quinlan*
Affiliation:
Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
David Schuldberg
Affiliation:
Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
Hal Morgenstern
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Montana, USA
William Glazer
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
*
Donald M. Quinlan, Room 10-635, Yale-New Haven Hospital, 20 York Street, New Haven, CT 06504, USA
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Abstract

Background

The long-term symptom profile of chronic out-patients was studied.

Method. 242 out-patients receiving neuroleptic medications (109 with schizophrenia and 133 non-schizophrenics), were studied for positive (SAPS) and negative (SANS) symptoms at baseline and at 24 months to investigate whether these symptom groups changed over out-patient maintenance treatment.

Results

Overall and within groups, negative symptoms decreased and positive symptoms increased. While the sums of the SANS scores for the schizophrenic patients were initially higher, their mean SANS score dropped more over time (P< 0.001), to show no difference from non-schizophrenics at follow-up. Positive symptoms increased in both groups, although schizophrenics were higher at both times; sub-scales within the SANS showed different patterns of change.

Conclusion

Support is found for a multidimensional view of both positive and negative symptoms and for a reconsideration of the notion of ‘progressive downward course’ in schizophrenia.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 166 , Issue 5 , May 1995 , pp. 634 - 641
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1995 

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