Psychopathological characteristics in alcohol hallucinosis and paranoid schizophrenia

In a retrospective study psychopathology, psychiatric family history and demographic data were studied in 53 patients with alcohol hallucinosis and an age- and sex-matched control group of 53 patients with paranoid schizophrenia who had been treated at the Psychiatric Hospital of the University of Munich between 1979 and 1986. The psychopathology was assessed by the AMDP system. The paranoid-hallucinatory symptoms in both conditions were very similar; verbal hallucinations and delusions of reference were most common in both groups. Disorders of ego were found in 87% of the schizophrenics, but only 30% of the alcoholic patients (P less than 0.001). Schizophrenics developed psychosis at a younger age than alcoholics and seemed to have poorer outcome. Patients with alcohol hallucinosis had more relatives with an alcohol history (P less than 0.001), and schizophrenics more relatives with schizophrenic psychosis (P less than 0.001).