Exploration of dimensions of psychopathology in neuroleptic-naive patients with recent-onset schizophrenia/schizophreniform disorder

Previous studies have suggested that schizophrenic psychopathology segregates into three orthogonal dimensions, viz., psychosis, negative and disorganization. Most of these reports were based on studies on medicated patients with varving degrees of chronicity. The present study aimed at exploring the dimensionality of psychopathology rated on the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS) and the Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms (SAPS) in a sample of 43 neuroleptic-naive patients with recent-onset schizophrenia/schizophreniform disorder. Principal Components Analysis (PCA) of SANS and SAPS global ratings, excluding inattention but including inappropriate affect as a separate global rating, revealed that the symptoms segregated into three dimensions, viz., negative (affective flattening, alogia, avolition anhedonia and inappropriate affect), psychosis (delusions and hallucinations) and disorganization (positive formal thought disorder and bizarre behavior). Cumulatively these three dimensions explained 74.07% of the variance. The results suggest that the three dimensions of schizophrenic psychopathology are valid even in neuroleptic-naive, recent-onset patients with schizophrenia/schizophreniform disorder. PCA of the SANS and SAPS individual items revealed similar findings, but psychotic symptoms loaded under two components, thus yielding a four-factor solution; however, this observation needs to be confirmed in a larger sample of neuroleptic-naive schizophrenic patients. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.