Distress attributed to negative symptoms in schizophrenia

The purpose of the study was to examine (1) to which negative symptoms schi zophrenia patients attribute distress and (2) whether clinical variables ca n predict the levels of reported distress. With the help of a research assi stant, 86 hospitalized patients completed a self-rating scale for negative symptoms, The 21 items of the self-rating scale were taken from the Scale f or the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS), A psychiatrist rated the pat ients on a number of scales, including the SANS, When patients reported par ticular symptoms, they were asked whether those symptoms bothered or distre ssed them. Answers to this question were highly dependent on the type of sy mptom involved, Distress was most often attributed to symptoms in the subsc ale avolition-apathy, Patients were also asked how much they were bothered or distressed. Again, high levels of distress were most often attributed to items in the subscale avolition-apathy, A summary score was developed for the level of reported distress: the distress score. Regression analysis sho wed that distress scores were not associated with the observed severity of negative symptoms or with the level of psychiatric disability. High distres s scores were best predicted by the combination of high scores for depressi on and high scores for insight into positive symptomatology, However, this model explained only a quarter of the variance in distress scores.