Factor structure of the brief negative symptom scale

Abstract

The current study examined the factor structure of the Brief Negative Symptom Scale (BNSS), a next-generation negative symptom rating instrument developed in response to the NIMH-sponsored Consensus Development Conference on Negative Symptoms. Participants included 146 individuals with a DSM-IV diagnosis of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. Principal axis factoring indicated two distinct factors explaining 68.7% of the variance. Similar to previous findings, the factors reflected motivation and pleasure and emotional expressivity. These findings provide further support for the construct validity of the BNSS, and for the existence of these two negative symptom factors.

Motivational Deficits and Negative Symptoms in Schizophrenia: Concepts and Assessments

“…This pattern was demonstrated in studies using older negative scales (e.g., SANS) (e.g., Mueser 1994;Sayers et al 1996;Milev et al 2005;Siegel et al 2006;Dowd and Barch 2010;. It has also been replicated in studies using the two more recently developed scales (Horan et al 2011;Kirkpatrick et al 2011;Strauss et al 2012;Kring et al 2013). Thus, the experiential negative symptoms, which are defined by motivational disturbances, comprise the subdomain that appears most strongly related to community functioning.…”

“…The methodological issues fall in two categories: assessment tools and clinical trial design features. Regarding assessment tools, two new clinical interview assessment measures, the Brief Negative Symptom Scale (BNSS; Strauss et al 2012) and the Clinical Assessment Interview for Negative Symptoms (CAINS; Horan et al 2011), have recently been developed. The BNSS is a 13 items' measure that yields six subscales: blunted affect, alogia, asociality, anhedonia, distress, and avolition.…”

Reward-dependent modulation of working memory is associated with negative symptoms in schizophrenia

“…All patients were further assessed using the Brief Negative Symptom Scale (BNSS; Strauss et al, 2012), the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS; Andreasen NC, 1982), the PANSS, the Global Assessment of Functioning scale (GAF; Frances et al, 1994), the Personal and Social Performance Scale (PSP; Schaub and Juckel, 2011) and the Calgary Depression Scale for Schizophrenia (CDS, Addington et al, 1993). We used the BNSS as our main measurement for negative symptoms since it was designed to facilitate a clear distinction of the factors apathy and diminished expression.…”

“…One factor is referred to as diminished expression, comprising blunted affect and alogia. The other factor is referred to as diminished motivation and pleasure, or apathy, and comprises asociality, anhedonia and avolition (Kring and Barch, 2014;Strauss et al, 2012). This distinction might allow a more differentiated approach in the search of underlying pathophysiological mechanisms (Blanchard and Cohen, 2006;Foussias and Remington, 2010;Liemburg et al, 2013;Messinger et al, 2011).…”

The association of neurocognitive impairment with diminished expression and apathy in schizophrenia

“…In sum, although it is well established that negative symptoms correlate with neurocognitive deficits with weak to moderate effect sizes, findings regarding specific relations with negative symptom dimensions are inconsistent. Given that the correlation between diminished expression and apathy is moderately high (Strauss et al, 2012a), it is thus unclear whether they independently relate to neurocognitive deficits or if one dimension is driving the potential association.…”