Is social skills performance a correlate of schizophrenia subtypes?

53 inpatients with a DSM-III diagnosis of schizophrenia were assessed in the week prior to discharge from hospital on measures of social skills performance and on severity of positive and negative symptoms. A cluster analysis based on the total positive and negative symptom scores resulted in three groups. The group with the least negative symptoms exhibited the best social skills performance. The findings add a further dimension to the validity of the subtyping of schizophrenia on the basis of positive and negative symptoms.