Depression, emotional blunting, and akinesia in schizophrenia

Depression, negative symptoms, and extrapyramidal signs (EPS) frequently occur together in schizophrenia. Their overlap is due partly to the lack of specificity of assessment instruments. However, to disentangle the three syndromes is clinically important as treatment of schizophrenia requires a differentiated approach. This study investigated the overlap between depression, emotional blunting as a core part of the negative syndrome, and akinesia as manifestation of EPS, using the Calgary Depression Rating Scale (CDSS), the Rating Scale for Emotional Blunting (SEB), and the akinesia score of the Simpson-Angus Scale (SAS) as the most specific assessment instruments presently available. We in…