Negative Symptoms

Negative symptoms, such as those that accompany schizophrenia, can be seen as lack of active involvement with life; flat affect, little emotion, poverty of speech, inability to feel pleasure, low motivation, and lack of interest in forming attachments. These are called negative symptoms because they indicate a lack of active symptoms thus becoming a symptom in itself. These symptoms are evidence of cognitive deficits that are caused by the disease. Negative symptoms prove more difficult to treat than the positive symptoms of disorders such as delusions, hallucinations and disordered thought. They are called positive because there is a behavior or belief present in the individual that shouldn't be there and is not normal.