Positive and negative symptoms in schizophrenia and the Dexamethasone Suppression Test.

Although the Dexamethasone Suppression Test (DST) was originally proposed as a specific marker for major depressive disorder (Carroll et al. 1981), several recent studies have reported high rates of DST nonsuppression in schizophrenic patients, ranging from 22% to 73%. DST nonsuppression in schizophrenia has been attributed to depressive symptomatology (Munro et al. 1983), negative symptomatology (Coppen et al. 1983; Shima et al. 1986), subtype differences (Banki et al. 1984), episodic course, and good prognosis (Targum 1983). Investigations have so far yielded discrepant findings, prompting at least one author (Myers 1984) to suggest