Abstract

ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND:
The phenomena of negative symptoms of long stay schizophrenic patients were studied at AL- Rashad Mental Teaching Hospital for three hundred patients one hundred fifty females and hundred fifty males.
OBJECTIVE:
To identify the prevalence of negative symptoms in long stay schizophrenic patients, and to study the relationship of negative symptoms with sociodemographic factors.
PATIENTS AND METHODS:
A cross sectional study and semi –structured psychiatric interview based on ICD 10 criteria together with a symptoms check list were used to assess the negative symptoms among our sample, during seven months from first January to first August 2007.
RESULTS:
The results revealed that all those patients had negative symptoms ,and the commonest one in male patients was poor self care (83%) , followed by marked apathy(66.7%) ,while in female patients ,the commonest was non verbal communication(80%),followed by blunted affect(74%) .
CONCLUSION:
The negative symptoms were very common in long stay schizophrenic patients. And there is different gender distribution