[An international study of the course and outcome of schizophrenia coordinated by the World Health Organization]

Psychiatry Demography Unit of Psychiatric Center Prague is one of the participating sites in the transcultural study on Long-term Course and Outcome of Schizophrenia coordinated by World Health Organization (WHO). The aim of the project is to learn more about factors predicting the long-term course and outcome and to investigate socio-cultural differences in schizophrenic patients. The present research builds upon the earlier WHO coordinated studies: International Pilot Study of Schizophrenia (IPSS) carried out in 1968-1969 in 13 centers including Czechoslovakia (N = 1202) and Study on Determinants of Outcome of Severe Mental Disorder (DOSMed) taken place between 1978-1980. The finding of IPSS and DOSMed were notable: incidence of narrowly defined schizophrenia did not vary greatly across cultures in opposite of the variation of short term outcome of illness that was more favourable in developing than in industrialized nations. The present follow-up study of the DOSMed and the IPSS patients (after 14 and 24 years) allow the examination of a large enough sample in a relatively short time and facilitate the development of new instruments, which provide a unique opportunity of their further cultural valid application for our center.