Negative symptoms in first episode schizophrenia: Results from the "parma early psychosis" program.

Introduction: Identifying distinct dimensions of negative symptoms in First Episode Schizophrenia (FES) might result in a better understanding and treatment of this invalidating symptomatology. Objectives: Aim of this study was to examine negative symptom structure in FES patients using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). Methods: All 147 participants, aged 12-35 years, completed the PANSS and the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) scale. A principal component analysis with varimax rotation was performed to investigate PANSS negative symptomstructure in the FES total sample. Results: A 2-factormodel (i.e. "Expressive Deficits" and "Asociality" dimensions) was identified. Only "Expressive Deficits" domain had a significant negative correlation with baseline GAF score. Conclusions: This bipartite solution seems to be adequate to describe the phenomenological variety of negative symptoms experienced by FES individuals at the point of entry in early intervention services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]