Association of negative symptoms with tardive dyskinesia in schizophrenic patients

In recent years, a great deal of interest has been focused on the association between negative symptoms of schizophrenia and tardive dyskinesia, but the literature is far from conclusive. Thirty-six schizophrenic patients with tardive dyskinesia and 76 without were surveyed using the Scale for Assessment of Negative Symptoms. On univariate analysis, the composite score and scores of certain subscales were associated with tardive dyskinesia, but this association was lost on multivariate analysis. After adjusting for confounding variables like age, education and antipsychotic dose, no association of negative symptoms and tardive dyskinesia was found.