Schizophrenia causes two types of symptoms: negative and positive. Negative symptoms relate to those abilities or personality traits that are "lost" with schizophrenia. Negative symptoms usually occur first and may still be present during periods of remission as the disease progresses.

Negative symptoms generally include:

• Apathy or lack of motivation.
• Self-neglect, such as not bathing.
• Reduced or inappropriate emotion, such as becoming angry with strangers.
• Inability to experience pleasure.
• Loss of motivation to complete goals or tasks.
• Problems focusing or paying attention.
• Not being able to show facial expressions, even when happy or upset.
• Not talking or making only short statements. This is not the same as refusing to talk.
• Not being able to start or to continue to do tasks. The person may need to be encouraged to do most tasks that other people do on their own, such as eating, bathing, or grooming.