[How can we determine the outcome of schizophrenic diseases?]

With the successful introduction of neuroleptics in the 1950s and improvement of medical and psycho-social care a major breakthrough toward a positive development of the schizophrenic disease in both the short and especially the long term seemed accomplished. By now the initial euphoria has given way to at least temporary disillusionment. How serious is the actual scale of the handicap? How often do permanent health- and social impairments occur? After naming the methodological problems of passed follow-up-studies theoretical requirements of future studies of the course of schizophrenic diseases are being described.