Aberrant salience in acute versus chronic schizophrenia: Do medication and positive symptoms make a difference?
Indian Journal of Psychiatry September 1, 2024 Bhuvana Prakash Vaidya, Sonia Shenoy, Samir Kumar Praharaj 2 citations
Aberrant salience is significantly elevated in schizophrenia patients with prominent positive symptoms, particularly delusions and hallucinations, and appears comparable to the general population in chronic remitted patients, suggesting it is a state-dependent phenomenon. In a cross-sectional study of 113 subjects (83 patients and 30 healthy controls), symptomatic groups (acute drug-free and chronic-medicated) showed higher aberrant salience than asymptomatic patients or controls, while no significant difference emerged between medicated and unmedicated symptomatic patients. A strong positive correlation was found between aberrant salience and positive symptom severity, but not with negative symptoms. Medication may reduce aberrant salience indirectly by alleviating positive psychotic symptoms.