Early negative symptoms in schizophrenia patients predicts daily functioning at 12 months and negative symptoms at 8 years, Joseph Ventura, Ph.D., and his coauthors report.
In a longitudinal study of negative symptoms in 149 recent-onset schizophrenia patients, 24% of participants experienced one or more instance of negative symptom exacerbation despite overall symptom stability in the first year. Early negative symptom severity was associated with poor social functioning (r = –0.34; P < .01) and work/school functioning (r = –0.25; P < .05) after 1 year, and predicted negative symptoms (r = –0.29; P < .05) at 8 years, reported Dr. Ventura, who is with the department of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles.
These findings “provide support for intervening and treating negative symptoms early in the hope that this may prevent those symptoms from disrupting both short-term and long-term work and school functioning,” the investigators wrote.
Read the full article in Schizophrenia Research here: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2014.10.043.