SYMPTOM PROFILES AND HOMELESSNESS IN SCHIZOPHRENIA

One hundred homeless schizophrenic men and 100 never homeless schizoph renic men were compared in terms of symptom ratings on the Positive an d Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), which yields a positive, negative, and general psychopathology scale score, as well as evaluated on a num ber of other variables. The homeless group obtained significantly high er ratings on the PANSS positive and general psychopathology scales, b ut the two groups did not differ on the PANSS negative scale score. Wh en symptom patterns for subsets of patients who did not abuse illicit substances or alcohol (N = 23 for homeless, N = 56 for nonhomeless) an d who were compliant with medication (N = 63 for homeless, N = 82 for nonhomeless) were examined, the higher ratings on the positive and gen eral psychopathology scales failed to achieve statistical significance , while the absence of between-group differences on the negative scale was maintained. Our results suggest that severity of positive and gen eral psychopathology symptoms, but not of negative symptoms, predicts homelessness in schizophrenia and that illicit substance abuse and neu roleptic noncompliance contributed, at least in part, to our higher po sitive and general psychopathology symptom ratings in the homeless sam ple. Our findings underscore the need to undertake prospective longitu dinal studies to unravel the multifactorial etiology of homelessness i n schizophrenia.