Question

Which one of the following scenarios is a negative symptom of schizophrenia?

Options

• Ricky hits people randomly and believes certain voices tell him to do so.

• Kamaldeep giggles at his uncle’s funeral, to whom he was deeply attached.

• Madhav’s grandmother died a month ago but he still sees her and feels comforted.

• Farah is unable to express herself and invents new words like ‘paperskate’ for pen and ‘headshoe’ for hat.

Answer 1

Farah is unable to express herself and invents new words like ‘paperskate’ for pen and ‘headshoe’ for hat.

Explanation:

In schizophrenia, negative symptoms are defined as the “loss” or absence of normal functions. Farah’s difficulty in communicating herself and her usage of neologisms (new words) indicate a deficiency in normal communication and rational mental processes. Unlike positive symptoms, which include anomalous behaviours (such as hallucinations), negative symptoms, such as Farah’s, indicate a deterioration in the person's ability to operate normally and communicate coherently.