Negative symptoms include blunting of affect, poverty of speech and thought, apathy, anhedonia, reduced social drive, loss of motivation, lack of social interest, and inattention to social or cognitive input.

Positive and negative symptoms are medical terms for two groups of symptoms in schizophrenia. Positive symptoms add. Positive symptoms include hallucinations (sensations that aren’t real), delusions (beliefs that can’t be real), and repetitive movements that are hard to control. Negative symptoms take away.

Negative symptoms of schizophrenia are those involving the absence of something common to most people. This can include lack of communication, social interaction, and motivation. Though less obvious than positive symptoms like hallucination and delusions, negative symptoms can be just as hard to cope with.

Discontinuing treatment may lead to exacerbation of symptoms, undermining therapeutic progress. In these studies, poor response to treatment and worsening of underlying psychiatric symptoms, and to a lesser extent, intolerability to medication were the primary contributors to treatment being discontinued.

Schizophrenia can be hard to diagnose for a few reasons. One is that people with the disorder often don’t realize they’re ill, so they’re unlikely to go to a doctor for help. Another issue is that many of the changes leading up to schizophrenia, called the prodrome, can mirror other normal life changes.

The clinical improvement produced by CBD in the patients with schizophrenia has been linked with increased CSF anandamide levels. The effects of CBD on anandamide regulation in different brain regions associated with the pathophysiology of schizophrenia could explain its antipsychotic action.

Using data from 11 studies, Hjorthøj et al (2016) showed that schizophrenia was associated with an average of 14.5 years of potential life lost. The loss was greater for men (15.9) than for women (13.6). Life expectancy was greatly reduced in patients with schizophrenia, at 64.7 years (59.9 for men and 67.6 for women).

“Since CBD opposes some of the effects of THC in the brain, it makes sense it could be useful in treating psychotic disorders,” Pierre says. “There’s also some evidence that CBD has properties similar to antipsychotic drugs.” But Pierre says people with schizophrenia shouldn’t try CBD on their own.

Schizophrenia consists of three stages: prodromal, active, and residual. The prodromal stage consists of non-specific symptoms, such as lack of motivation, social isolation, and difficulty concentrating.