Instead, authors have recommended rating the specific behaviors that are defined as negative symptoms. To surmount these shortcomings, we developed a new rating scale for negative symptoms: the Motor-Affective-Social Scale (MASS). During a 5-minute structured interview, hand coverbal gestures, spontaneous smiles, voluntary smiling, and questions asked by the interviewer

were counted and rated on 101 inpatients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. Information on social behavior was obtained from nursing staff. The scale consisted ora total of eight items. The MASS showed high internal consistency (Cronbach alpha coefficient=0.81), CB-839 inter-rater reliability, DMH1 purchase and test-retest reliability (intra-class correlation coefficient=0.81). Convergent validity analyses showed

high correlations between MASS scores and scores on the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptom (SANS), and the negative symptoms subscale of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). The MASS showed excellent psychometric properties, practicality, and subject tolerability. Future research that includes the use of the MASS with other patient populations and that investigates the scale’s sensitivity during clinical trials should be performed. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“The otolith-ocular reflex in patients with episodic lateral tilt sensation without any other vestibular symptoms was assessed using ocular vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (oVEMP). Ten patients

(6 men and 4 women, mean age = 53.5) were enrolled. All patients had episodic lateral tilt sensation. Patients with a medical history of rotatory vertigo, loss of consciousness, head trauma, or symptoms or signs of central nervous dysfunction or proprioceptive dysfunction these and those who had been definitely diagnosed with a disease that causes disequilibrium were excluded. All of the 10 patients had oVEMP tests and cervical VEMP (cVEMP) tests and underwent caloric tests. Eight of the 10 patients showed unilateral absence of oVEMP, one displayed a bilateral absence, and one displayed normal oVEMP. Concerning cVEMP, 4 patients showed a unilateral absence of cVEMP, one displayed unilaterally decreased responses and 5 displayed normal cVEMP. All patients showed normal bilateral caloric responses. The present study showed that patients with episodic lateral tilt sensation displayed abnormal otolith-ocular reflexes, as shown by their oVEMP, suggesting that these patients were suffering from utricular dysfunction. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.