Purpose of the Scale

The aim is to identify the negative syndrome of schizophrenia. It is intended for patients with schizophrenia and is used by psychiatrists.

Scale Analysis

This scale was developed by Andreasen et al. in 1982 and consists of 5 subscales that measure symptoms:
Affective flattening
Alogia
Avolition-apathy
Anhedonia-asociality
Attention impairment

Scoring and Statistical Analysis

Each subscale is rated on a 6-point scale, from 0 = no indication of the symptom to 5 = severe presence of the symptom. Higher scores indicate more pronounced negative symptoms.

Validity and Reliability

The internal consistency index (Cronbach’s alpha) showed satisfactory reliability with a score of 0.74.

References

Andreasen, N. C. (1982). Negative symptoms in schizophrenia: definition and reliability. Archives of General Psychiatry, 39(7), 784–788.
Herold, C. J., Essig, M., & Schröder, J. (2020). Neurological soft signs (NSS) and brain morphology in patients with chronic schizophrenia and healthy controls. PLoS One, 15(4), e0231669.
Leucht, S., Barabássy, Á., Laszlovszky, I., Szatmári, B., Acsai, K., Szalai, E., … & Németh, G. (2019). Linking PANSS negative symptom scores with the Clinical Global Impressions Scale: understanding negative symptom scores in schizophrenia. Neuropsychopharmacology, 44(9), 1589–1596.