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. 2008 Oct;7(3):143-7.
doi: 10.1002/j.2051-5545.2008.tb00181.x.

Deficit schizophrenia: an update

Brian Kirkpatrick  1 , Silvana Galderisi
Affiliations

Deficit schizophrenia: an update

Brian Kirkpatrick et al. World Psychiatry. 2008 Oct.

Abstract

The criteria for deficit schizophrenia were designed to define a group of patients with enduring, primary (or idiopathic) negative symptoms. In 2001, a review of the literature suggested that deficit schizophrenia constitutes a disease separate from nondeficit forms of schizophrenia. Here we provide a review of new studies, not included in that paper, in which patients with deficit schizophrenia and those with nondeficit schizophrenia were compared on dimensions typically used to distinguish diseases: signs and symptoms, course of illness, pathophysiological correlates, risk and etiological factors, and treatment response. Replicated findings and new evidence of double dissociation supporting the separate disease hypothesis are highlighted. Weaknesses in research and treatment options for these patients are also emphasized.

Keywords: Deficit schizophrenia; apathy; double dissociation; heterogeneity; negative symptoms.

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