Trait Mindfulness in Psychotic Disorders: Dimensions Predicting Symptoms, Cognition, and Functional Outcome.

Mindfulness-based treatments are efficacious for psychotic disorders (PD). However, which components of mindfulness (i.e., attentive monitoring and nonjudgmental acceptance) are most relevant treatment targets is unclear. Further, there is a dearth of literature examining clinical correlates of mindfulness in people with PD. The present study aimed to examine group differences and clinical correlates of mindfulness in people with PD. We hypothesized that PD would report lower monitoring and acceptance than CN and that mindfulness components would be associated with symptoms including dysfunctional beliefs, alexithymia, neurocognitive ability, positive symptoms, and mood symptoms. Groups included individuals with PD (n = 54) and nonpsychiatric controls (n = 55). Participants completed self-report measures of mindfulness and related constructs and clinical interviews of symptoms. Results of ANOVA models indicated that global mindfulness was lower in PD relative to CN, with greatest differences evident for acceptance in the affective psychosis group. Regression models found that greater monitoring was associated with improved neurocognitive performance, while acceptance was associated with lower defeatist beliefs, alexithymia, and depression/anxiety symptoms. Results highlight the importance of targeting acceptance in the psychosocial treatment of PDs, especially for those with mood symptoms.

Integrating mindfulness into the extended process model of emotion regulation: The dual-mode model of mindful emotion regulation.

Extensive research has been conducted regarding how people manage their emotions. Within this research, there has been growing attention toward the role of mindfulness in emotion regulation. While prior reviews have discussed mindfulness in the context of emotion regulation, they have not provided a thorough integration using the prevailing models of emotion regulation or mindfulness. The present review discusses the Extended Process Model of Emotion Regulation and Monitoring and Acceptance Theory of mindfulness in order to propose a novel integrated framework, the Dual-mode Model of Mindful Emotion Regulation (D-MER). This model proposes two "modes" of mindfulness: Implementation and facilitation. Implementation posits that mindfulness skills can be used as emotion regulation strategies through attentional deployment and cognitive change. Facilitation posits that mindfulness as a state or trait affects emotion generation and regulation through effects on cognitive processes and positive or negative valence systems. Further, the D-MER posits that mindfulness experience can improve the efficiency of mindfulness-based emotion regulation strategies (implementation) while effects of mindfulness on emotion regulation processes become increasingly trait-like and automatic over time (facilitation). Empirical and theoretical support for this model are discussed, specific hypotheses to guide further research are provided, and clinical implications are presented. Use of this model may identify mechanisms underlying the interaction between mindfulness and emotion regulation which can be used in ongoing affective and clinical research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Ayahuasca in the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder: Mixed-methods case series evaluation in military combat veterans.

OBJECTIVE: Although ayahuasca-a plant-based psychedelic-is discussed as promising in the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), evidence so far remains limited to retrospective case reports and qualitative surveys. No study to date has examined whether ayahuasca results in prospective and clinically meaningful changes in trauma symptoms across individuals with PTSD symptoms. METHOD: To address this gap, we conducted a convergent mixed-methods case series study on eight military veterans with PTSD who participated in a 3-day ayahuasca intervention in Central America. Clinically meaningful changes from pre- to posttreatment and at a 3-month follow-up were assessed in three ways using: (a) PTSD checklist-5 (PCL-5); (b) experience sampling measurement of momentary PTSD and mood symptoms; and (c) an open-ended survey on perceived benefits. RESULTS: The majority (87.5%; 7/8) of participants demonstrated reliable and/or clinically significant changes in PCL-5 symptoms by posttreatment, which were maintained by 70% (5/7) of veterans by the 3-month follow-up. On average, veterans also reported significant improvements in momentary PTSD symptoms, as well as negative and positive affect in daily life posttreatment, with 63% (5/8) reporting moderate-to-large improvements in these domains. Broad themes characterizing the perceived benefits of ayahuasca included deep positive emotions, decentering/acceptance, and purpose in life; adverse acute experiences were, however, reported. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides preliminary support for the clinically meaningful and lasting benefits of a brief ayahuasca intervention on PTSD/mood symptoms in military veterans. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Computerized analysis of facial expression reveals objective indices of blunted facial affect.

Blunted affect is associated with severe mental illness, particularly schizophrenia. Mechanisms of blunted affect are poorly understood, potentially due to a lack of phenomenological clarity. Here, we examine clinician rated blunted affect and computerized facial metrics derived from ambulatory video assessment using machine learning. With high predictive accuracy (80-82%), we found that head orientation, eye movement, and facets of mouth movement were associated with clinical ratings of blunted affect. Features denoting larger muscle movements were associated with social cognition (R2 = 0.37) and cognition (R2 = 0.40). Findings provide potential insights on psychological and pathophysiological contributors to blunted affect.

The role of defeatist performance beliefs on cognitive effort-cost decision-making in schizophrenia.

Impairments in effort-cost decision-making have been consistently observed in people with schizophrenia (SZ) and may be an important mechanism of negative symptoms. However, the processes that give rise to impairments in effort-cost decision-making are unclear, leading to limited progress in identifying the most relevant treatment targets. Drawing from cognitive models of negative symptoms and goal-directed behavior, this study aimed to examine how and under what type of task conditions defeatist performance beliefs contribute to these decision-making processes. Outpatients with SZ (n = 30) and healthy controls (CN; n = 28) completed a cognitive effort allocation task, the Cognitive Effort-Discounting (COGED) task, which assesses participants' willingness to exert cognitive effort for monetary rewards based on parametrically varied working memory demands (completing N-back levels). Results showed that although participants with SZ demonstrated reduced willingness to work for rewards across N-back levels compared to CN participants, they showed less choice modulation across different N-back conditions. However, among SZ participants with greater defeatist performance beliefs, there was a reduced willingness to choose the high effort option at higher N-back levels (N-back levels 3, 4, and 5 versus 2-back). Results suggest that compared to CN, the SZ group's subjective willingness to expend effort largely did not dynamically adjust as cognitive load increased. However, defeatist beliefs may undermine willingness to expend cognitive effort, especially when cognitive task demands are high. These beliefs may be a viable treatment target to improve effort-cost decision-making impairments in people with SZ.

Ecological Momentary Assessment Of State Fluctuations In Mindfulness And Symptoms In Psychotic Disorders.

Mindfulness skills are a component of many modern cognitive-behavioral therapies that are used to treat a wide range of disorders, including psychotic disorders. While habitual (i.e., trait) mindfulness is associated with clinical outcomes, the effects of momentary (i.e., state) mindfulness are unclear. This is due in part to previous studies using cross-sectional designs relying on trait self-report questionnaires. Although such approaches are invaluable, they lack temporal specificity to evaluate momentary changes and effects of mindfulness. To address these limitations, the current study used ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to evaluate state levels of two mindfulness skills, acceptance and monitoring, and their association with state fluctuations in symptoms. Participants included individuals with affective and non-affective psychotic disorders (PD; n = 49) and healthy controls (CN; n = 53) who completed six days of EMA. Results indicated that the PD group endorsed lower state acceptance than CN; however, the groups did not significantly differ in monitoring. Further, greater state mindfulness skills in both acceptance and monitoring were associated with greater positive affect, reduced negative affect, and reduced negative symptoms. However, participants with a predominantly affective psychosis presentation showed differential effects compared to those with non-affective presentations. These findings suggest that mindfulness training for people with psychotic disorders may benefit from focusing on improving acceptance in order to improve emotional experience and build on existing monitoring skills. Further, mindfulness based psychosocial interventions may offer a novel means of treating negative symptoms in people with PD, which are currently stalled and largely unresponsive to other treatments.

Deconstructing emotion regulation in schizophrenia: The nature of abnormalities at the selection and implementation stages.

Difficulties with emotion regulation are observed across psychiatric diagnoses, including psychotic disorders. Past studies using trait self-report indicate that people with schizophrenia (SZ) are less likely to use adaptive emotion regulation strategies and more likely to use maladaptive emotion regulation strategies than controls (CN). However, more recent evidence using ecological momentary assessment (EMA) indicates that regulation effectiveness and adaptiveness may vary across strategies. The present study aimed to systematically understand abnormalities in state-level emotion regulation strategy selection, effectiveness, and adaptiveness in SZ compared to CN using EMA. Participants (n = 50 SZ; n = 53 CN) completed 6 days of EMA surveys assessing emotional experience, emotion regulation, and symptoms. Results indicated that SZ selected interpersonal emotion regulation and avoidance more often than CN, while both groups selected reappraisal and distraction more often than avoidance and suppression. Overall, strategies were effective at reducing negative emotion and adaptive for reducing delusions over time. Reappraisal, avoidance, and suppression all significantly down-regulated delusions over time. Although some selection abnormalities were present in terms of rate of selection and effort exertion, people with SZ select strategies which are effective and adaptive in the short term. The present results have implications for how cognitive therapy for psychosis may target delusions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Markov chain analysis indicates that positive and negative emotions have abnormal temporal interactions during daily life in schizophrenia.

Abnormalities in positive and negative emotional experience have been identified in laboratory-based studies in schizophrenia (SZ) and associated with poorer clinical outcomes. However, emotions are not static in daily life-they are dynamic processes that unfold across time and are characterized by temporal interactions. Whether these temporal interactions are abnormal in SZ and associated with clinical outcomes is unclear (i.e., whether the experience of positive/negative emotions at time t increases or decreases the intensity of positive/negative emotions at time t+1). In the current study, participants with SZ (n = 48) and healthy controls (CN; n = 52) completed 6 days of ecological momentary assessment (EMA) surveys that sampled state emotional experience and symptoms. The EMA emotional experience data was submitted to Markov chain analysis to evaluate transitions among combined positive and negative affective states from time t to t+1. Results indicated that: (1) In SZ, the emotion system is more likely to stay in moderate or high negative affect states, regardless of positive affect level; (2) SZ transition to co-activated emotional states more than CN, and once emotional co-activation occurs, the range of emotional states SZ transition to is more variable than CN; (3) Maladaptive transitions among emotional states were significantly correlated with greater positive symptoms and poorer functional outcome in SZ. Collectively, these findings clarify how emotional co-activation occurs in SZ and its effects on the emotion system across time, as well as how negative emotions dampen the ability to sustain positive emotions across time. Treatment implications are discussed.

Temporal Interactions Between Social Motivation and Behavior In Daily Life Among Individuals at Clinical High-Risk for Psychosis.

BACKGROUND AND HYPOTHESES: Poor social functioning is common among individuals at clinical high-risk (CHR) for psychosis and is associated with greater likelihood of conversion. Unfortunately, processes contributing to social impairment are unclear, making social functioning difficult to improve via treatment. The current study examined whether abnormalities in social functioning result from aberrant temporal interactions between social motivation and behavior. STUDY DESIGN: Participants included 105 individuals at CHR and 62 healthy controls (CN) who completed 6 days of ecological momentary assessment. Multilevel models examined time-lagged interactions between social behavior and motivation. STUDY RESULTS: CHR and CN did not differ in social motivation; however, CHR were less likely to interact with family and coworkers and more likely to engage in interactions via phone and text/social media. Autocorrelations indicated that social behavior and motivation were generally consistent across time in CHR and CN groups. Time-lagged analyses indicated that both groups had an increase in social motivation across time when they were alone and a decrease in social motivation across time when they were with others. However, the relative decrease when with others and increase when alone were less robust in CHR than CN, particularly for in-person interactions. Social motivation at time t did not differentially impact social partner or modality at time t+1 in the groups. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that social behavior and motivation have different temporal interactions in CHR and CN. Psychosocial interventions may benefit from targeting the frequency of social behavior with specific partners and modalities to change social motivation.

Network analysis of discrete emotional states measured via ecological momentary assessment in schizophrenia.

Prior studies demonstrate that schizophrenia (SZ) is associated with abnormalities in positive and negative emotional experience that predict clinical presentation. However, it is unclear whether specific discrete emotions within the broader positive/negative categories are driving those symptom associations. Further, it is also unclear whether specific emotions contribute to symptoms in isolation or via networks of emotional states that dynamically interact across time. The current study used network analysis to evaluate temporally dynamic interactions among discrete emotional states experienced in the real world as assessed via Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA). Participants included 46 outpatients with chronic SZ and 52 demographically matched healthy controls (CN) who completed 6 days of EMA that captured reports of emotional experience and symptoms derived from monetary surveys and geolocation based symptom markers of mobility and home location. Results indicated that less dense emotion networks were associated with greater severity of negative symptoms, whereas more dense emotion networks were associated with more severe positive symptoms and mania. Additionally, SZ evidenced greater centrality for shame, which was associated with greater severity of positive symptoms. These findings suggest that positive and negative symptoms are associated with distinct profiles of temporally dynamic and interactive emotion networks in SZ. Findings have implications for adapting psychosocial therapies to target specific discrete emotional states in the treatment of positive versus negative symptoms.

Negative Symptom Trajectories in Individuals at Clinical High Risk for Psychosis: Differences Based on Deficit Syndrome, Persistence, and Transition Status.

Background and Hypothesis: Negative symptom trajectory in clinical high risk (CHR) for psychosis is ill defined. This study aimed to better characterize longitudinal patterns of change in negative symptoms, moderators of change, and differences in trajectories according to clinical subgroups. We hypothesized that negative symptom course will be nonlinear in CHR. Clinical subgroups known to be more severe variants of psychotic illness-deficit syndrome (DS), persistent negative syndrome (PNS), and acute psychosis onset-were expected to show more severe baseline symptoms, slower rates of change, and less stable rates of symptom resolution. Study Design: Linear, curvilinear, and stepwise growth curve models, with and without moderators, were fitted to negative symptom ratings from the NAPLS-3 CHR dataset (N = 699) and within clinical subgroups. Study Results: Negative symptoms followed a downward curvilinear trend, with marked improvement 0-6 months that subsequently stabilized (6-24 months), particularly among those with lower IQ and functioning. Clinical subgroups had higher baseline ratings, but distinct symptom courses; DS vs non-DS: more rapid initial improvement, similar stability of improvements; PNS vs non-PNS: similar rates of initial improvement and stability; transition vs no transition: slower rate of initial improvement, with greater stability of this rate. Conclusions: Continuous, frequent monitoring of negative symptoms in CHR is justified by 2 important study implications: (1) The initial 6 months of CHR program enrollment may be a key window for improving negative symptoms as less improvement is likely afterwards, (2) Early identification of clinical subgroups may inform distinct negative symptom trajectories and treatment needs.

Negative Symptom Inventory-Self-Report (NSI-SR): Initial development and validation.

Negative symptoms (i.e., anhedonia, avolition, asociality, blunted affect, alogia) are frequently observed in the schizophrenia-spectrum (SZ) and associated with functional disability. While semi-structured interviews of negative symptoms represent a gold-standard approach, they require specialized training and may be vulnerable to rater biases. Thus, brief self-report questionnaires measuring negative symptoms may be useful. Existing negative symptom questionnaires demonstrate that this approach may be promising in schizophrenia, but no measure has been devised for use across stages of psychotic illness. The present study reports initial psychometric validation of the Negative Symptom Inventory-Self-Report (NSI-SR), the self-report counterpart of the Negative Symptom Inventory-Psychosis Risk clinical interview. The NSI-SR is a novel transphasic negative symptoms measure assessing the domains of anhedonia, avolition, and asociality. The NSI-SR and related measures were administered to two samples: 1) undergraduates (n = 335), 2) community participants, including: SZ (n = 32), clinical-high risk for psychosis (CHR, n = 25), and healthy controls matched to SZ (n = 31) and CHR (n = 30). The psychometrically trimmed 11-item NSI-SR showed good internal consistency and a three-factor solution reflecting avolition, asociality, and anhedonia. The NSI-SR demonstrated convergent validity via moderate to large correlations with clinician-rated negative symptoms and related constructs in both samples. Discriminant validity was supported by lower correlations with positive symptoms in both samples; however, correlations with positive symptoms were still significant. These initial psychometric findings suggest that the NSI-SR is a reliable and valid brief questionnaire capable of measuring negative symptoms across phases of psychotic illness.

Environmental context predicts state fluctuations in negative symptoms in youth at clinical high risk for psychosis.

BACKGROUND: Negative symptoms (avolition, anhedonia, asociality) are a prevalent symptom in those across the psychosis-spectrum and also occur at subclinical levels in the general population. Recent work has begun to examine how environmental contexts (e.g. locations) influence negative symptoms. However, limited work has evaluated how environments may contribute to negative symptoms among youth at clinical high risk for psychosis (CHR). The current study uses Ecological Momentary Assessment to assess how four environmental contexts (locations, activities, social interactions, social interaction method) impact state fluctuations in negative symptoms in CHR and healthy control (CN) participants. METHODS: CHR youth (n = 116) and CN (n = 61) completed 8 daily surveys for 6 days assessing negative symptoms and contexts. RESULTS: Mixed-effects modeling demonstrated that negative symptoms largely varied across contexts in both groups. CHR participants had higher negative symptoms than CN participants in most contexts, but groups had similar symptom reductions during recreational activities and phone call interactions. Among CHR participants, negative symptoms were elevated in several contexts, including studying/working, commuting, eating, running errands, and being at home. CONCLUSIONS: Results demonstrate that negative symptoms dynamically change across some contexts in CHR participants. Negative symptoms were more intact in some contexts, while other contexts, notably some used to promote functional recovery, may exacerbate negative symptoms in CHR. Findings suggest that environmental factors should be considered when understanding state fluctuations in negative symptoms among those at CHR participants.

Negative symptoms in schizophrenia differ across environmental contexts in daily life.

A recent environmental theory of negative symptoms posits that environmental contexts (e.g., location, social partner) play a significant-yet often unaccounted for-role in negative symptoms of schizophrenia (SZ). "Gold-standard" clinical rating scales offer limited precision for evaluating how contexts impact symptoms. To overcome some of these limitations, Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) was used to determine whether there were state fluctuations in experiential negative symptoms (anhedonia, avolition, and asociality) in SZ across contexts (locations, activities, social interaction partner, social interaction method). Outpatients with SZ (n = 52) and healthy controls (CN: n = 55) completed 8 daily EMA surveys for 6 days assessing negative symptom domains (anhedonia, avolition, and asociality) and contexts. Multilevel modeling demonstrated that negative symptoms varied across location, activity, social interaction partner, and social interaction method. For the majority of contexts, SZ and CN did not report significantly different levels of negative symptoms, with SZ only reporting higher negative symptoms than CN while eating, resting, interacting with a significant other, or being at home. Further, there were several contexts where negative symptoms were similarly reduced (e.g., recreation, most social interactions) or elevated (e.g., using the computer, working, running errands) in each group. Results demonstrate that experiential negative symptoms dynamically change across contexts in SZ. Some contexts may "normalize" experiential negative symptoms in SZ, while other contexts, notably some used to promote functional recovery, may increase experiential negative symptoms.

Beliefs About the Uncontrollability and Usefulness of Emotion in the Schizophrenia-Spectrum: Links to Emotion Regulation and Negative Symptoms.

Background: Beliefs about the usefulness and controllability of emotions are associated with emotion regulation and psychological distress in the general population. Although individuals with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders evidence emotion regulation abnormalities, it is unclear whether emotional beliefs contribute to these difficulties and their associated poor clinical outcomes. Methods: Participants included 72 individuals with schizophrenia-spectrum diagnoses (outpatients with schizophrenia n = 38; youth at clinical high-risk for psychosis, n = 34) and healthy controls (CN: n = 61) who completed the Emotional Beliefs Questionnaire, Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, and measures of clinical symptom severity. Results: Those with schizophrenia-spectrum diagnoses reported believing that emotions were less controllable than CN; however, groups did not differ regarding beliefs about the usefulness of emotion. Greater beliefs of the uncontrollability of emotion were associated with greater use of suppression, less use of reappraisal, and increased negative symptoms. Emotion regulation partially mediated the association between emotional beliefs and negative symptoms. Conclusions: Individuals in the schizophrenia-spectrum display superordinate beliefs that emotions are uncontrollable. These beliefs may influence emotion regulation strategy selection and success, which contributes to negative symptoms. Findings suggest that beliefs of emotional uncontrollability reflect a novel process related to both emotion regulation and negative symptoms that could be targeted in psychosocial treatments. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10608-023-10357-w.

The positivity offset theory of anhedonia in schizophrenia: evidence for a deficit in daily life using digital phenotyping.

BACKGROUND: Negative symptoms of schizophrenia have recently been proposed to result from a decoupling of (intact) hedonic experience and (diminished) approach behavior. The current study challenged this view by exploring the hypothesis that negative symptoms are driven by a specific type of emotional experience abnormality, a reduction in the positivity offset (i.e. the tendency to experience greater levels of positive relative to negative emotion in low-arousal contexts), which limits the production of approach behaviors in neutral environments. METHODS: Participants included outpatients with SZ (n = 44) and healthy controls (CN: n = 48) who completed one week of active (ecological momentary assessment surveys of emotional experience and symptoms) and passive (geolocation, accelerometry) digital phenotyping. Mathematical modeling approaches from Cacioppo's Evaluative Space Model were used to quantify the positivity offset in daily life. Negative symptoms were assessed via standard clinical ratings, as well as active (EMA surveys) and passive (geolocation, accelerometry) digital phenotyping measures. RESULTS: Results indicated that the positivity offset was reduced in SZ and associated with more severe anhedonia and avolition measured via clinical interviews and active and passive digital phenotyping. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that current conceptual models of negative symptoms, which assume hedonic normality, may need to be revised to account for reductions in the positivity offset and its connection to diminished motivated behavior. Findings identify key real-world contexts where negative symptoms could be targeted using psychosocial treatments.

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on hallucinations and delusions in youth at clinical high-risk for psychosis and outpatients with schizophrenia.

Although the COVID-19 pandemic has had detrimental effects on mental health in the general population, the impact on those with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders has received relatively little attention. Assessing pandemic-related changes in positive symptoms is particularly critical to inform treatment protocols and determine whether fluctuations in hallucinations and delusions are related to telehealth utilization and treatment adherence. In the current longitudinal study, we evaluated changes in the frequency of hallucinations and delusions and distress resulting from them across three-time points. Participants included: (1) outpatients with chronic schizophrenia (SZ: n = 32) and healthy controls (CN: n = 31); (2) individuals at clinically high risk for psychosis (CHR: n = 25) and CN (n = 30). A series of questionnaires were administered to assess hallucination and delusion severity, medication adherence, telehealth utilization, and protective factors during the pandemic. While there were no significant increases in the frequency of hallucinations and delusions in SZ and CHR, distress increased from pre-pandemic to early pandemic in both groups and then decreased at the third time point. Additionally, changes in positive symptom severity in SZ were related to psychiatric medication adherence. Findings suggest that positive symptoms are a critical treatment target during the pandemic and that ongoing medication services will be beneficial.

Reinforcement learning profiles and negative symptoms across chronic and clinical high-risk phases of psychotic illness.

Negative symptoms are prominent in individuals with schizophrenia (SZ) and youth at clinical high-risk for psychosis (CHR). In SZ, negative symptoms are linked to reinforcement learning (RL) dysfunction; however, previous research suggests implicit RL remains intact. It is unknown whether implicit RL is preserved in the CHR phase where negative symptom mechanisms are unclear, knowledge of which may assist in developing early identification and prevention methods. Participants from two studies completed an implicit RL task: Study 1 included 53 SZ individuals and 54 healthy controls (HC); Study 2 included 26 CHR youth and 23 HCs. Bias trajectories reflecting implicit RL were compared between groups and correlations with negative symptoms were examined. Cluster analysis investigated RL profiles across the combined samples. Implicit RL was comparable between HC and their corresponding SZ and CHR groups. However, cluster analysis was able to parse performance heterogeneity across diagnostic boundaries into two distinct RL profiles: a Positive/Early Learning cluster (65% of participants) with positive bias scores increasing from the first to second task block, and a Negative/Late Learning cluster (35% of participants) with negative bias scores increasing from the second to third block. Clusters did not differ in the proportion of CHR vs. SZ cases; however, the Negative/Late Learning cluster had more severe negative symptoms. Although implicit RL is intact in CHR similar to SZ, distinct implicit RL phenotypic profiles with elevated negative symptoms were identified trans-phasically, suggesting distinct reward-processing mechanisms can contribute to negative symptoms independent of phases of illness.

Validation of accelerometry as a digital phenotyping measure of negative symptoms in schizophrenia.

Negative symptoms are commonly assessed via clinical rating scales; however, these measures have several inherent limitations that impact validity and utility for their use in clinical trials. Objective digital phenotyping measures that overcome some of these limitations are now available. The current study evaluated the validity of accelerometry (ACL), a passive digital phenotyping method that involves collecting data on the presence, vigor, and variability of movement. Outpatients with schizophrenia (SZ: n = 50) and demographically matched healthy controls (CN: n = 70) had ACL continuously recorded from a smartphone and smartband for 6 days. Active digital phenotyping assessments, including surveys related to activity context, were also collected via 8 daily surveys throughout the 6 day period. SZ participants had lower scores on phone ACL variables reflecting vigor and variability of movement compared to CN. ACL variables demonstrated convergent validity as indicated by significant correlations with active digital phenotyping self-reports of time spent in goal-directed activities and clinical ratings of negative symptoms. The discriminant validity of ACL was demonstrated by low correlations with clinical rating scale measures of positive, disorganized, and total symptoms. Collectively, findings suggest that ACL is a valid objective measure of negative symptoms that may complement traditional approaches to assessing the construct using clinical rating scales.