Deficit versus negative syndrome in schizophrenia: prediction of attentional impairment

Findings on neuropsychological associates of the negative syndrome of schizophrenia have been inconsistent. The "deficit syndrome," a reconceptualization of the negative syndrome, was developed in part to address this inconsistency. The purpose of this study was (1) to replicate previous findings relating the deficit syndrome to impairment of certain kinds of attentional abilities, and (2) to compare the negative and deficit syndromes in their associations with performance on tests of attention. Data from 40 individuals with schizophrenia were analyzed. Results provide evidence to suggest that impairment of certain attentional processes is associated with severity of deficit symptomatology, while impairment of other attentional processes is not. Moreover, the negative and deficit syndromes differed in their respective associations with attentional task performance at a trend level or above for five of seven tasks, suggesting that the negative and deficit syndromes do indeed have different underlying neuropsychological correlates.