A follow-up study of schizophrenia

Abstract EN

This retrospective study was carried out to ascertain the course and relevance of various prognosticating variables of outcome of schizophre¬nia.

The sample consisted of 48 selected patients of schizophrenia, admitted in Department of Psychiatry, King George's Medical college, Luck now, 12years back, who were evaluated with the help of various re¬search scales.

It was observed that 9 predictive factors-age of onset, na¬ture of onset, family history of schizophrenia, family types, marital status, premorbid non-schizoid personality, affective blunting, presence of pre-cipitants, and literacy were statistically significant.

Further it was re¬vealed that more than half of the patients showed favorable outcome.

In light of this study it is suggested that the outcome of schizophrenia is favorable over a period of 12years and can be predicted to a significant extent.