[Features of the clinical picture and course of ambulatory schizophrenia with onset in young adulthood (clinico-catamnestic study)]

Abstract

From a population of epidemiologically examined schizophrenics of three Moscow regions a group of 96 patients was selected. These patients have fallen ill in adolescence and youth and have never been hospitalized after their primary dispensary examination. A catamnestic examination of them carried out in 10 to 15 years has shown that the "ambulatory" schizophrenia of the juvenile age is characterized by prevalence of neurosis-like and effaced forms, and takes a course mainly in the form of lingering atypical pubertal "schube" (the so-called "state of juvenile asthenic inadequacy"). This state ends in regression of the symptoms and in the patients' social and working re-adaptation, as the juvenile age is past, however, shallow schizophrenic changes still remain. The question on the expedience of extramural treatment of such patients and expansion of indications for their social and working rehabilitation is discussed.