Multi-trait-multi-method assessment of predictive variables of outcome in schizophrenia spectrum disorders. A nosological evaluation

Abstract

Adopting the nosological hypothesis of functional psychoses, we sought predictive factors for the outcome of two extreme illnesses within the schizophrenia spectrum: cycloid psychosis (N = 23) and hebephrenia (N = 22). The previously completed 5 1 2 years follow-through study of both disease entities showed that the two types of psychosis differ distinctly in accordance with nosological expectations. According to the findings of the present study, the predictive factors for the two groups of illness also differ significantly both qualitatively and numerically. The nosospecific predictive factors are probably largely of a biological nature. According to our findings, there is a wider scope for social and psychological predictive factors in cycloid psychosis where the tendency to clinical recovery predominates and where the biologically determined psychosis remains more a foreign body in the life history.