The Effect of Neuroleptics and Other Psychotropic Drugs on Negative Symptoms in Schizophrenia

Negative symptoms: a path analytic approach to a double-blind, placebo- and haloperidol-controlled clinical trial with olanzapine

“…Evidence suggests that when typical neuroleptics are initially effective, they may appear to reduce both the positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia (21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26). However, conventional neuroleptics reportedly fail to provide a sustained reduction in primary or deficit negative symptoms for the majority of patients (27).…”

Assessing the Efficacy of Treatments for the Deficit Syndrome of Schizophrenia

“…Consequently, reports of efficacy for negative symptoms, however desirable such efficacy may be, do not inform us about efficacy for the deficit syndrome. The "typical" neuroleptics such as chlorpromazine and haloperidol have been known for some time to treat negative symptoms as defined by negative symptom rating scales Goldberg 1985;Meltzer et al 1986;Opler et al 1994). However, these drugs are not effective treatments for deficit features.…”

Effect of Antipsychotic Withdrawal on Negative Symptoms in Schizophrenia

“…In contrast, there have been reports revealing that negative symptoms can be par tially improved in a subgroup of schizophrenics treated with conventional antipsychotics (Goldberg 1965;Breier et al 1987;Angst et al 1989;Coryell et al 1990;Tan don et al 1990;Meltzer et al 1991), and a number of studies indicating that the atypical antipsychotics like clozapine (Kane et al 1988;Miller et al 1994) and risperi done (Castelao et al 1989;Bressa et al 1991;Chouinard et al 1993) may be even more effective in ameliorating negative symptoms. There is now a general consensus that antipsychotics reduce negative symptoms during the successful treatment of positive symptoms, but that they improve at a slower rate and not as thoroughly as positive symptoms improve (Meltzer et al 1986). What remains controversial is if negative symptoms that represent a primary psychopathological trait manifesta tion of schizophrenia are effectively treated by anti psychotic medications.…”