PATIENTS WITH DEFICIT, NONDEFICIT, AND NEGATIVE SYMPTOM SCHIZOPHRENIA- DO THEY DIFFER DURING EPISODES OF ACUTE PSYCHOTIC DECOMPENSATION

The aims of this study were (1) to test the hypothesis that the clinic al profiles of deficit, nondeficit, and negative symptom patients are difficult to distinguish during episodes of acute psychotic decompensa tion; and (2) to compare these groups of schizophrenic patients in ter ms of sociodemographic and anamnestic variables. Patients admitted for acute psychotic decompensation were retrospectively diagnosed as havi ng deficit (N=18) or nondeficit (N=40) forms of schizophrenia and thei r symptom profiles were evaluated cross-sectionally by using various r ating scales (SAPS, SANS, and PANSS). As a whole, nondeficit patients were clearly differentiated from deficit patients by lower severity of negative symptoms. However, the subgroup (N=24) of nondeficit patient s with prominent negative symptoms that were secondary and/or nonendur ing showed a symptom profile largely overlapping with that of deficit patients. Attentional impairment was the only measure distinguishing d eficit and negative symptom patients. As for trait variables, deficit patients had lower education than the other two groups and, among male subjects, there was a higher percentage of left-banders in the defici t group than in the negative symptom subgroup. These results confirm t he importance of diagnosing the deficit syndrome during periods of cli nical stability in order to avoid the risk of misclassifying negative symptom patients into the deficit group.