Understanding Schizophrenia: Causes and Symptoms

9. Negative Symptoms

Healthy people innately exhibit normal behaviors. Mental health clinicians refer to the absence of these normal behaviors as negative symptoms and use them to diagnose schizophrenia. Doctors have more difficulty evaluating negative symptoms, often mistaking them for clinical depression.

Like those with clinical depression, people with schizophrenia often lack enthusiasm or emotion. They do not maintain consistent eye contact and their facial expressions are often flat and non-expressive. Social withdrawal, apathy, and an inability to experience pleasure or joy are common signs. As with other symptoms of schizophrenia, negative symptoms may increase or change in severity over time.