Psychiatria pre prax 1/2020

Practical aspects of importance, evaluation and solution of negative symptoms of schizophrenia

Negative symptoms (NS) are the core, long-term underestimated and rarely solved symptoms of schizophrenia. Increased professional interest in this area is encouraging. Thanks to successful research into new molecules that are also effective in treating negative symptoms, a new antipsychotic cariprazine has been introduced into clinical practice. It is not only a chance that this innovative treatment will improve the condition of our patients, but it is also an opportunity to better understand the importance of negative symptoms in common clinical practice. This is the reason for more accurate assessment and more effective targeting of symptoms that are considered difficult to change. We would like to share our experience in evaluating negative symptoms and their changes in relation to the new treatment option. We also present possibilities for evaluating psychosocial functions and their changes. We present and offer a protocol elaborated at our center and we believe that this will help in obtaining valuable data from real clinical practice.

Keywords: schizophrenia, negative symptoms, cariprazine, scales for evaluation, psychosocial functioning