The NIMH-MATRICS Consensus Statement on Negative Symptoms

rating scales/antipsychotics The impairments now called negative symptoms have long been noted as common features of schizophrenia, and the concept of negative symptoms itself has a long history.1,2 Patients who exhibit significant negative sym-ptoms have particularly poor function and quality of life,3–8 and this aspect of schizophrenia has been pro-posed as a separate domain with distinctive patho-physiological and therapeutic implications since at least 1974.9 Despite the attention these problems receive, no drug has received Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for an indication of negative symptoms, and available data indicate that second-generation anti-psychotic medications have not met early hopes for a highly effective treatment for alleviation of negative symptoms.10 Because of limited progress in the development of effective treatments for negative symptoms, under the auspices of the National Institute of Mental Health