Renewed interest in the role of negative symptoms in """"""""defect state"""""""" schizophrenia encouraged us to develop a """"""""Negative Symptom Rating Scale (NSRS)"""""""" to more efficiently measure this syndrome. Negative symptoms together with poor premorbid history, cognitive impairments, inadequate response to neuroleptic treatment and enlarged cerebral ventricles have been clustered into the Category of Type II schizophrenia. The relationships among negative symptoms and the other elements of defect state schizophrenia are the object of an ongoing study. The main goal of this study is to identify more homogeneous subgroups of patients with schizophrenia and the development of specific modalities of treatment for these groups.
