The treatment of negative symptoms: a clinical and methodological study

A Meta-analysis of the Efficacy of Second-Generation Antipsychotics

“…We rejected the assertion of Geddes et al 1 that the SGAs were equally efficacious as a homogeneous group because the amount of variance attributable to the different SGAs was large (Q 9 =58.8; P=10 −8 random-effects model). Aripiprazole, [112][113][114] quetiapine, 108,[115][116][117][118] remoxipride, [119][120][121][122][123][124][125][126][127][128][129][130][131][132][133][134][135] sertindole, [109][110][111][136][137][138] and ziprasidone 107,[139][140][141][142] show similar efficacy to FGAs in the sense that the improvement scores produced by these SGAs were not statistically significantly better than those of FGAs (Table 2). Failure to find a statistically significant difference does not prove that these drugs are equal to FGAs because there is a possibility that further studies could demonstrate this.…”

Motivation and Social Cognition in Patients with Schizophrenia

“…Patients with a score of 4 (moderate severity) or greater on at least three items on the positive subscale of the PANSS were defined as meeting criteria for prominent positive symptoms. Similarly, those patients with a score of 4 or greater on at least 3 items on the negative subscale of the PANSS were defined as meeting criteria for prominent negative symptoms (Lapierre et al, 1999). Patients were identified as being in symptomatic remission if they had score of 3 (mild severity) or less on each of the following items on the PANSS: delusions, unusual thought content, hallucinatory behavior, conceptual disorganization, mannerisms and posturing, blunted affect, passive-apathetic social withdrawal, and lack of spontaneity and flow of conversation (Andreasen et al, 2005).…”