Neuroimaging and basic symptoms of schizophrenia
Lopez-Ibor, M.I.; Lopez-Ibor, J.J.; Ayuso Gutierrez, Y.J.
Actas Espanolas de Psiquiatria 28(8): 1-4
2000
ISSN/ISBN: 1139-9287 PMID: 11262299 Document Number: 512649
The complexity of the clinical picture of schizophrenia is an essential feature of the disease that has led to attempts at organizing the symptoms and clinical course into different subtypes or grouping them into symptom constellations. Variations in response to treatment, particularly biological treatment, justifies the effort of differentiation. Various authors have tried to define primary or fundamental symptoms, that are directly related with the underlying abnormality, and secondary symptoms, which involve adaptive or reactive mechanism. Similarly, first-order symptoms, pathognomic symptoms, and second-order symptoms have been described. A constant latent problem in psychopathology is to determine the degree in which first-order symptoms are primary.