Deficit syndrome in older schizophrenic patients

Previous studies have reported that a proportion of younger schizophrenic patients have the "deficit syndrome," with persistent "negative" symptoms not secondary to factors other than the disease process (e.g., depression). Yet, there is scant information on the deficit syndrome in older schizophrenic patients. We studied 46 schizophrenic patients over age 45. Seventeen met the criteria for the deficit syndrome as described by Carpenter et al. (1988), 20 were considered definite nondeficit patients, and 9 could not be classified. The deficit schizophrenic patients had a significantly higher total score on the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms but similar scores on scales for positive symptoms, depressive symptoms, and overall psychopathology as compared with nondeficit patients. The deficit patients also had a nonsignificantly greater impairment on the Halstead-Reitan Battery. One notable difference between our results and those of Carpenter et al. was in the prevalence of deficit syndrome. We found the prevalence (37%) to be significantly higher than that reported in younger patients (15%). Pending confirmation using larger sample sizes, the increased frequency of the deficit syndrome in our study could possibly be attributed to aging or a longer duration of illness in our subjects.