The Primary and Secondary Symptoms of Schizophrenia: Current and Future Management

作者：Nasrallah Henry A^*

来源：Annals of Clinical Psychiatry, 2011, 23(4): S5-S9.

The symptoms of schizophrenia can be clustered into the following domains: positive, negative, cognitive, and mood clusters. Historically, the psychotic (positive) symptoms have been predominant in the treatment of schizophrenia, and the class of dopamine antagonists used to treat this illness is referred to as "anti-psychotics." However, the greatest unmet need in schizophrenia is the lack of treatments for the primary, negative, and cognitive symptoms, all of which account for the functional disability of schizophrenia. In this article, the identification of the causes of primary and secondary positive, negative, cognitive, and mood symptoms of schizophrenia are discussed in light of the limitations of the dopamine hypothesis. The avoidable causes of the secondary symptoms of schizophrenia also are described. A case is made for the development of glutamate pathway modulators, which may have a broader efficacy profile across all the symptom domains of schizophrenia. Research efforts to develop glutamate modulators for schizophrenia are evolving.

• 出版日期2011-11