Chapters authored
Negative Symptoms of Schizophrenia: Constructs, Burden, and Management
The aim of the chapter is to raise awareness about recent constructs of negative symptoms, their burden on patients, caregivers and society, and about their management. Schizophrenia consists of positive, negative, and cognitive symptoms. However, treating physicians are not necessarily aware about recent constructs of negative symptoms, their presence at prodromal stage, and the distinction among primary, secondary, persistent, prominent, or predominant negative symptoms. Negative symptoms have a substantial impact on the day-to-day functioning of patients with schizophrenia and contribute more to impaired quality of life and poor functioning than positive symptoms do. Additionally, they are associated with high costs for society and a substantial burden for caregivers. Negative symptoms are not adequately treated by available antipsychotic therapies. Publications have shown that no antipsychotic has a beneficial effect when compared to another. Cariprazine is the only antipsychotic that has proven superiority over another antipsychotic (risperidone) in one clinical study.
Part of the book: Psychotic Disorders