Researchers analyzed the persistent challenge of negative symptoms in individuals with schizophrenia and the increasing interest in understanding and addressing these symptoms over the past decade. The study emphasizes the importance of carefully characterizing these symptoms, highlighting the need for second-generation assessment scales in clinical and research settings to avoid inadequacies in studies. Researchers also highlighted the potential of cognitive computational neuroscience and the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) framework in dissecting and understanding different aspects of negative symptoms, particularly motivation-related ones.

The study concluded that the goal is to improve assessment, neuroscience modeling, and treatment development, offering hope for advancements in clinical epidemiology and treatment trials in the future.

Reference: Fernandez-Egea E, Mucci A, Lee J, et al. A new era for the negative symptoms of schizophrenia. Br J Psychiatry. 2023 Jul;223(1):269-270. doi: 10.1192/bjp.2023.69. Epub 2023 Jul 10. PMID: 37424202.