[Negative symptoms in schizophrenia: new pharmacological approaches].

The management of negative symptoms appears to be a major challenge because of functional disability induced by these symptoms and their relative resistance to treatments currently on the market. The aim of this article is to review new approaches that may enable optimal management of these symptoms. First, we describe the methodological difficulties that hindered the development and evaluation of specific treatment, and objectives currently defined to enable the development of new pharmacological approaches. Then we present the monotherapy and adjuvant therapies that have been assessed, including first and second generation antipsychotics, psychostimulants, antidepressants, cholinergic and glutamatergic agents, the oxytocin, hormones and more invasive therapies such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Other molecules are under development and evaluation such alpha-7 nicotinic receptor agonists.