One Simple Question on Positive/Negative Symptoms.

Seeing as the the symptoms of Schizophrenia are often divided in to two categories of either being:

Positive Symptoms
Such as hallucinations or delusions.

And/or

Negative Symptoms
Such as withdrawal or lack of function.

Is it possible for someone with schizophrenia to undergo only positive symptoms but not negative, or maybe even visa versa?

Well I think the positive symptoms are the key. If you only had negative symptoms, it would be hard to know you are schizophrenic. There are concepts like concretization of thoughts though which are certainly cues. The positive symptoms can play a very powerful role in ones life. They can be very difficult to manage. Thinking about sharing your thoughts may seem dangerous to the person experiencing them. The positive symptoms are the key thing that needs to be overcome for a person to have a decent chance to deal with any negative symptoms that may also arise. Without becoming free of the positive symptoms perhaps the negative symptoms make things worse. Then again if you go blurt out what you are experiencing with hallucinations you can be institutionalize, and if the things you blurt out frighten people, you may even be imprisoned.

I decided to have a look at the Ultimate Source of All Necessary Information, i.e. Wikipedia.

I thought that the first line of the page for what schizophrenia is was absolutely hilarious.

"Schizophrenia ... is a mental disorder often characterized by abnormal social behavior and failure to recognize what is real."

"OFTEN" chracaterised by "ABNORMAL" social behaviour and failure to recognise what is "REAL". Ridiculous!

But anyway... it mentions that the ICD-10 proposes the category of "Simple schizophrenia: Insidious and progressive development of prominent negative symptoms with no history of psychotic episodes". Supposedly very rare, but it exists.

Now for the DSM-IV criteria of schizophrenia:
"DSM-IV-TR: Diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia: A. Characteristic symptoms: Two (or more) of the following, each present for a significant portion of time during a 1-month period (or less if successfully treated): (1) delusions (2) hallucinations (3) disorganized speech (e.g., frequent derailment or incoherence (4) grossly disorganized or catatonic behaviour (5) negative symptoms, i.e., affective flattening, alogia (poverty of speech), or avolition (lack of motivation) Note: Only one Criterion A symptom is required if delusions are bizarre or hallucinations consist of a voice keeping up a running commentary on the person's behavior or thoughts, or two or more voices conversing with each other. B. Social/occupational dysfunction: For a significant portion of the time since the onset of the disturbance, one or more major areas of functioning such as work, interpersonal relations, or self-care are markedly below the level achieved prior to the onset (or when the onset is in childhood or adolescence, failure to achieve expected level of interpersonal, academic, or occupational achievement). C. Duration: Continuous signs of the disturbance persist for at least 6 months. This 6-month period must include at least 1 month of symptoms (or less if successfully treated) that meet Criterion A (i.e., active-phase symptoms) and may include periods of prodromal (symptomatic of the onset) or residual symptoms. During these prodromal or residual periods, the signs of the disturbance may be manifested by only negative symptoms or two or more symptoms listed in Criterion A present in an attenuated form (e.g., odd beliefs, unusual perceptual experiences). D. Schizoaffective and Mood Disorder exclusion..."

Negative symptoms are only one of a list of 5 general symptoms, of which only 2 (or even 1) are required, and it says nothing about negative symptoms needing to be one of them.

So I gather from this that there are many supposed schizophrenics who don't have negative symptoms, though not many who don't have positive symptoms.

Note that you can have positive AND negative symptoms for any intensity or length of time and not be schizophrenic, so long as you can work/study, take care of yourself, and have good interpersonal relations.

L30 wrote:Negative Symptoms
Such as withdrawal or lack of function.

*mod edit*