Stability of the diagnosis of deficit syndrome in schizophrenia

Objective: Primary, enduring negative symptoms have been distinguished from negative symptoms more generally and are used to define the deficit syndro me of schizophrenia. Although the validity of the deficit syndrome has been demonstrated by using brain imaging, neuropsychological, illness outcome, and developmental history data, the stability of this diagnostic category h as not been tested prospectively by using direct patient assessments. Metho d: Forty-three outpatients with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder were categorized into deficit and nondeficit groups an average of 3.8 years after having been previously categorized. Results: There was 83% agreement between initial and blind follow-up designations of deficit status and 88% agreement on the nondeficit categorization. Conclusions: These results pro vide evidence for the long-term stability of the deficit syndrome in patien ts with schizophrenia and the reliability of the deficit/nondeficit categor ization when diagnosed by those with appropriate training. Furthermore, the y validate the method of categorizing deficit patients by using cross-secti onal and retrospective data.