Do Negative Symptoms Influence Outcome of Depression?

Thirty four cases of endogenous major depression (RDC) have been studied in order to examine whether negative symptoms influence the outcome of depression, by comparing depressives with and without predominant negative symptoms, and by examining which negative symptoms have high percentage reduction in scores. Patients were rated on Scale for Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS) during their inclusion and later during one year followup. Complete recovery was seen in only 41 % of the cases. Depression with predominant negative symptoms had poorer outcome and did not respond to tricyclic anti-depressants alone. The results indicate that negative symptoms adversely influence the clinical outcome in depressed patients and could have a role in producing chronicity.