[Variety in the course and prognostic criteria for paranoid schizophrenia with onset in adolescence and young adulthood according to late follow-up]

Abstract

A clinical follow up study carried out 10 to 15 years after the schizophrenia onset in 130 patients who fell ill in adolescence and youth has shown that there are differences in the degree of the process advancement at late stages of the disease course. This makes it possible to speak about three different tendencies in the disease development, and namely: a) rapid formation of the so-called terminal states (31.5%), b) retention of the process activity with continuing complication of the productive disorders (40%), and c) noticeable reduction of the morbid manifestations with signs of compensation of the personality defect and possibilities of social and working adaptation (the so-called late remissions, 28.5%). Some clinico-pathogenetic differences correlating with the above variants have been discovered. This makes it possible to deduce prognostic criteria in those forms of the disease.