Challenges and Considerations in Treating Negative and Cognitive Symptoms of Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders.

Background: The prototypical patient with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSDs) is often thought to possess positive symptoms. However, patients with SSDs can present with predominantly negative and cognitive symptoms, which can create diagnostic and treatment challenges.

Case Presentation: A 33-year-old female veteran presented to the emergency department with diminished speech output, markedly blunted affect, tangential speech, was not oriented to situation, and appeared to be responding to internal stimuli.

Digital Medicine System in Veterans With Severe Mental Illness: Feasibility and Acceptability Study.

Background: Suboptimal medication adherence is a significant problem for patients with serious mental illness. Measuring medication adherence through subjective and objective measures can be challenging, time-consuming, and inaccurate.

Objective: The primary purpose of this feasibility and acceptability study was to evaluate the impact of a digital medicine system (DMS) among Veterans (patients) with serious mental illness as compared with treatment as usual (TAU) on medication adherence.