Neurological Soft Signs, Clinical Symptoms and Treatment Reactivity in Patients Suffering from First Episode Schizophrenia

Objective: (a) To investigate the correlation between clinical symptoms and neurological soft signs in patients suffering from their first episode of schizophrenia and (b) to examine the relationship between soft signs and the reactivity of first episode treatment.

Methods: The trial included 92 male patients undergoing a first episode of schizophrenia. The clinical symptoms of the patients were rated on the positive and negative syndrome scale (PANSS). The PANSS scale was used to provide a measure for three syndromes: psychomotor poverty, disorganisation, and reality distortion. Neurological soft signs were assessed with the help of the neurological evaluation scale.

Results: The findings corroborated significant positive correlations between soft neurological signs on the one hand and negative symptoms and reduced treatment response on the other.

Conclusion: Our study of the population of patients with first episode schizophrenia has corroborated the findings of those trials that found a correlation between neurological soft signs and the negative symptomatic dimension of schizophrenia. Another finding of the trial is that neurological soft signs were associated with poorer response to treatment of the first episode of schizophrenia.