Studying Schizophrenia: Classification and Diagnosis Part II

Here, at last, is part II. Sorry it took so long. Hope everyone has had a good new year so far. Anyway, here we go.


The last post looked at the positive symptoms of schizophrenia, if you wish to refresh your memory click here. This post will look at the negative symptoms, which can be found in the DSM-IV-TR.

Negative Symptoms

These include: Affective Flattening, Alogia and Avolition.

-Affective Flattening This is the reduction in the range and intensity of emotional expression, which can include facial expression, intonation, eye contact, and body language.

Affective flattening

-Alogia or poverty of speech is characterized by the lessening of speech fluency and productivity. This is thought to reflect slowing/blocked thoughts.

Alogia

-Avolition This is the reduction/inability to initiate and persist in goal-direct behaviour.

That's it for the diagnosis. If you're interested in the biological or psychological explanations or theories for schizophrenia stick around and I'll be sure to post again soon. Thank You.