BackgroundThe aim was an investigation of the symptom composition of the negative syndrome of schizophrenia.MethodA hundred schizophrenic patients were assessed with various rating scales for positive and negative symptoms and typological criteria. A subgroup with a negative syndrome was defined, and a discriminant analysis performed using symptoms from the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS) as discriminant variables.ResultsThe discriminant function classified 92% of patients correctly. All but four SANS symptoms (inappropriate affect, both attentional items and blocking) were significantly correlated with the discriminant function.ConclusionsWith the exception of some items, the SANS seems to capture adequately the negative syndrome of schizophrenia.