[Phenomenologic constellations of persistent alterations in idiopathic psychoses. An empirical comparative study]

The long-term outcome of 355 patients with affective, schizoaffective and schizophrenic disorders was evaluated after long duration of the illness (mean more than 25 years). All patients were personally interviewed using operational instruments (PSE, WHO/DAS, WHO/PIRS, GAS, Huber's Psychopathological Criteria). By application of descriptive methods, integrating operationally estimated findings with clinically-impressively estimated "interactional atmosphere", we defined eight types of phenomenological constellations of persistent alterations ("residual-types") of functional disorders: "depletion syndrome", "apathetic-paranoid syndrome (resp. apathetic-hallucinatory syndrome)", "adynamic-deficient syndrome", "chronic psychosis", "structural deformation", "asthenic insufficiency syndrome", "chronic subdepressive syndrome", and "chronic hyperthymic syndrome". It was found a different distribution of persistent alterations in affective and schizophrenic disorders while schizoaffective disorders occupied a position in-between. The differences in the phenomenology of persistent alterations are interpreted as the result of differing biological and psychological processes. It was also found that the phenomenology of persistent alterations is related to the degree of disability.