Background Recent meta-analyses on the efficacy of psychological treatments for the negative symptoms of schizophrenia included mostly trials that had not specifically targeted negative symptoms. To gauge the efficacy of such treatments in the target patient population – namely people with schizophrenia who experience negative symptoms – we conducted a meta-analysis of controlled trials that had established an inclusion criterion for relevant negative symptom severity. Method We conducted a systematic literature search and calculated random-effects meta-analyses for controlled post-treatment effects and for pre-post changes within treatment arms. Separate analyses were conducted for different therapeutic approaches. Our primary outcome was reduction in negative symptoms; secondary outcomes were amotivation, reduced expression, and functioning. Results Twelve studies matched our inclusion criteria, testing Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) vs. treatment-as-usual (k = 6), Cognitive Remediation (CR) vs. treatment-as-usual (k = 2), CBT vs. CR (k = 2), and Body-oriented Psychotherapy (BPT) vs. supportive group counseling and vs. Pilates (k = 1 each). Accordingly, meta-analyses were performed for CBT vs. treatment-as-usual, CR vs. treatment-as-usual, and CBT vs. CR. CBT and CR both outperformed treatment-as-usual in reducing negative symptoms (CBT: Hedges’ g = -0.46; CR: g = -0.59). There was no difference between CBT and CR (g = 0.12). Significant pre-post changes were found for CBT, CR, and to a lesser extent for treatment-as-usual, but not for BPT. Conclusion Although effects for some approaches are promising, more high-quality trials testing psychological treatments for negative symptoms in their target population are needed to place treatment recommendations on a sufficiently firm foundation.

No abstract

Although numerous interventions are available for negative symptoms, outcomes have been unsatisfactory with pharmacological and psychological interventions producing changes of only limited clinical significance. Here, we argue that because negative symptoms occur as a complex syndrome caused and maintained by numerous factors that vary between individuals they are unlikely to be treated effectively by the present “one size fits all” approaches. Instead, a well-founded selection of those interventions relevant to each individual is needed to optimize both the efficiency and the efficacy of existing approaches. The concept of functional analysis (FA) can be used to structure existing knowledge so that it can guide individualized treatment planning. FA is based on stimulus—response learning mechanisms taking into account the characteristics of the organism that contribute to the responses, their consequences and the contingency with which consequences are tied to the response. FA can thus be flexibly applied to the level of individual patients to understand the factors causing and maintaining negative symptoms and derive suitable interventions. In this article we will briefly introduce the concept of FA and demonstrate—exemplarily—how known psychological and biological correlates of negative symptoms can be incorporated into its framework. We then outline the framework's implications for individual assessment and treatment. Following the logic of FA, we argue that a detailed assessment is needed to identify the key factors causing or maintaining negative symptoms for each individual patient. Interventions can then be selected according to their likelihood of changing these key factors and need to take interactions between different factors into account. Supplementary case vignettes exemplify the usefulness of functional analysis for individual treatment planning. Finally, we discuss and point to avenues for future research guided by this model.

The last seven years have seen the greatest surge of Ebola virus disease (EVD) cases in equatorial Africa, including the 2013–2016 epidemic in West Africa and the recent epidemics in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The vaccine clinical trials that took place in West Africa and the DRC, as well as follow-up studies in collaboration with EVD survivor communities, have for the first time allowed researchers to compare immune memory induced by natural infection and vaccination. These comparisons may be relevant to evaluate the putative effectiveness of vaccines and candidate medical countermeasures such as convalescent plasma transfer. In this study, we compared the long-term functionality of anti-EBOV glycoprotein (GP) antibodies from EVD survivors with that from volunteers who received the recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus vectored vaccine (rVSV-ZEBOV) during the Phase I clinical trial in Hamburg. Our study highlights important differences between EBOV vaccination and natural infection and provides a framework for comparison with other vaccine candidates.

People with schizophrenia and negative symptoms show diminished net positive emotion in low-arousing contexts (diminished positivity offset) and co-activate positive and negative emotion more frequently (increased ambivalence). Here, we investigated whether diminished positivity offset and increased ambivalence covary with negative symptoms along the continuum of psychotic symptoms. We conducted an online-study in an ad-hoc community sample (N = 261). Participants self-reported on psychotic symptoms (negative symptoms, depression, positive symptoms, anhedonia) and rated positivity, negativity, and arousal elicited by pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral stimuli. The data were analyzed with multilevel linear models. Increasing levels of all assessed symptom areas showed significant associations with diminished positivity offset. Increased ambivalence was related only to positive symptoms. Our results show that the diminished positivity offset is associated with psychotic symptoms in a community sample, including, but not limited to, negative symptoms. Ecological validity and symptom specificity require further investigation.