Affective deficits and social deficits in schizophrenia: what's what?

Affective deficits and social deficits have played an important role in theory and research on schizophrenia, and it has generally been assumed that these are two different types of symptoms. The aim of these comments is to argue that the distinction between these symptoms is not straightforward and that the apparent differences between affective and social deficits virtually disappear when current approaches to their definition and measurement are considered. The implications of this point with regard to theory and research on the etiology and treatment of schizophrenia are discussed, and an approach that has the potential to reveal whether specific schizophrenic symptoms are more closely associated with affective deficits or with social deficits is described.