Add-on fluvoxamine improves primary negative symptoms: evidence for specificity from response analysis of individual symptoms.
Establishing that treatment for negative symptoms improves primary features of schizophrenia rather than similar symptoms of other etiology is an important clinical issue. Primary negative symptoms may also differ among themselves in the propensity to respond to a given treatment. In this study, we examined the response of negative symptoms to add-on fluvoxamine by analyzing discrete symptoms independently and controlling for potential confounding variables. Data from two published controlled studies comparing fluvoxamine to placebo were pooled for the analysis. Eleven of sixteen Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms items tested, including key negative symptoms such as affective flattening and alogia, improved. The improvement was not related to baseline levels of depressive, extrapyramidal, and positive symptoms or to changes in the symptom scores during the study. The findings support the view that fluvoxamine augmentation can improve primary negative symptoms in chronic schizophrenia patients.
Silver
Henry
H
Brain Behavior Laboratory, Sha'ar Menashe Mental Health Center, Mobile Post Hefer, Israel. mdsilver@tx.technion.ac.il
Aharon
Nelson
N
Kaplan
Alla
A
D000339:Affect / Q000187:drug effects*; D014150:Antipsychotic Agents / Q000378:metabolism / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002908:Chronic Disease; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D004357:Drug Synergism; D005260:Female; D016666:Fluvoxamine / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy*; D017367:Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use
D014150:Antipsychotic Agents; D016666:Fluvoxamine; D017367:Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors