Measures of affective flattening that combine self-reported emotional
experience with observed affect may identify deficit syndrome patients
better than ratings based on observed affect alone. In this study, we
examined 23 clinically stable but chronically ill schizophrenic patie
nts, 15 of whom were found to have a deficit syndrome. After exclusion
of patients with self-reported depressed mood from the deficit syndro
me group, the remaining patients with a deficit syndrome not accompani
ed by self-reported depressed mood showed a strikingly homogeneous dis
tribution of platelet monoamine oxidase activity. Results suggest that
inclusion of self-reported emotional experience in clinical definitio
ns of the deficit syndrome will increase the specificity of diagnosis.