Course and outcome of delusional psychoses

Abstract

The authors reinvestigated 84 out of a sample of 90 patients with delusional psychoses after an interval of 6-9 years. The results of the follow-up showed a pattern of episodic versus chronic course which compares to follow-up studies on classically diagnosed schizophrenias. The authors found evidence for their hypothesis concerning the nosological heterogeneity of this group of psychoses and propose a syndromatological classification apart from the delusional symptomatology itself. What they call background symptomatology was divided into axial syndromes. The authors feel that this results in subgroups that are more homogeneous for course and outcome than the usual classification systems.