Deficit in schizophrenia: the relationship between negative symptoms and neurocognition

The aim of the study was to analyze the role of clinical and neuropsychological variables in the psychosocial functioning and evolution of negative schizophrenia. We examined a sample of 49 negative schizophrenic outpatients who were pharmacologically stabilized. The subjects were evaluated clinically with the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia (SADS), and neuropsychologically with a broad neuropsychological test battery. The correlations between all of the variables were studied and their predictive capacity assessed by linear regression methods. When the neuropsychological impairment criterion was established, we were able to distinguish two groups of patients with similar psychopathologies, but different neuropsychological and prognostic characteristics. Schizophrenic patients with neuropsychological impairment showed worse prognosis, worse evolution, and worse psychosocial adaptation than nonneuropsychologically impaired schizophrenics. Cognitive variables are statistically good predictors of evolution, prognosis, and adaptation. In conclusion, the negative syndrome of schizophrenia is neuropsychologically heterogeneous. Although negative patients present a similar clinical profile, their neuropsychological and prognostic characteristics may differ.