Q.Read the following case study and answer the questions that follow: Sundar, a college going 20-year-old male, has moved from his home town to live in a big city. He has continuous fear of insecurity and feels that the enemy soldiers are following him. He gets very tense when he spots anyone in a uniform and feels that they are coming to catch him. This intense anxiety is interfering with his work and relationship, and his friends are extremely concerned as it does not make any sense to them. Sundar occasionally laughs abruptly and inappropriately, and sometimes stops speaking mid-sentence, scanning off in the distance as though he sees or hears something. He expresses concern about television and radio in the room potentially being monitored by the enemies. His beliefs are fixed and if they are challenged, his tone becomes hostile. Based on the symptoms being exhibited, identify the disorder. Explain the other symptoms that can be seen in this disorder.

Negative Symptom Schizophrenia: The "Taking Away" Side of the Illness

When most people hear "schizophrenia," they imagine hallucinations (hearing voices) or delusions (fixed false beliefs). Those are called positive symptoms — they add something to the person's experience that isn't normally there. But there's another side, often more disabling and harder to treat: negative symptoms.

Think of it this way: positive symptoms are like a radio playing static that shouldn't be there. Negative symptoms are like the radio slowly losing volume, then losing stations, until eventually it barely works at all. Something is being taken away — normal emotions, motivation, speech, and social drive.

The Intuition: What "Negative" Really Means

The word "negative" here does not mean "bad" or "pessimistic." In medicine, "negative" means absence or loss of a normal function. A negative symptom is something a healthy person has that the patient lacks.

Imagine a friend who used to be lively, chatty, and excited about plans. Over months, they become:

• Emotionally flat — no joy, no sadness, just a blank face
• Socially withdrawn — they stop answering calls, avoid gatherings
• Speechless — they give one-word answers or say nothing at all
• Apathetic — they lie in bed all day, not because they're tired, but because nothing feels worth doing

That's negative symptom schizophrenia. The person hasn't gained anything strange (no voices, no paranoia). They've lost the normal emotional and motivational machinery.

The Precise Statement

The five key negative symptoms, as per DSM-5, are:

Why This Matters (Especially for Exams) …