title: Management of primary negative symptoms in schizophrenia: an one-year observational study.
abstract: Negative symptoms represent a separate symptom domain, with respect to depression, neurocognition, and social cognition and have a strong direct and indirect impact on real-life functioning. Furthermore, negative symptoms that do not improve following antipsychotic treatment are an important diagnostic and therapeutic challenge. We conducted a 12-month-study open-observational study to evaluate the efficacy of some atypical antipsychotics on negative symptoms, according to the following recommendations of Consensus Development Conference Attendees. In our study, we evaluated in an open-label study the efficacy of some second-generation antipsychotics (clozapine, quetiapine, olanzapine, aripiprazole, paliperidone) in 42 patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder (DSM-5 criteria) with 'persistent negative symptoms'. We used different rating scales (PANSS, CDSs, BNSS, BPRS), but mainly we focused on the new Brief Negative Symptoms Scale (BNSS) for negative symptoms. Our total data indicate an overall statistically significant reduction in all scales, although not clinically relevant.
authors.affiliation: Neuropsychiatric Centre "Villa dei Pini", Via Pennini, 86/a, Avellino, Italy, franza.francesco@virgilio.it.
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Franza
authors.forename: Vincenzo
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Fasano
authors.forename: Serena
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: De Guglielmo
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Solomita
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D014150:Antipsychotic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000523:psychology*; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011594:Psychometrics; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000523:psychology*; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000188:drug therapy*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology
chemical_list: D014150:Antipsychotic Agents