The Copenhagen High-Risk Study. Premorbid and clinical dimensions of maternal schizophrenia

In a sample of 129 female schizophrenic patients followed for a period of 22 years, an analysis of intercorrelations between background, premorbid, and clinical variables was performed. Poor outcome, as measured by amount of hospitalization, was associated with premorbid psychopathic traits, defective premorbid social adjustment, early onset, and nonparanoid subtype of schizophrenia. Formal thought disorder, positive symptoms, and negative symptoms were positively intercorrelated. Schneiderian first-rank symptoms were predictors of better outcome and they were preceded by premorbid obsessive traits and lack of premorbid psychopathic and histrionic traits. These latter traits were predictive of early onset, nonparanoid schizophrenia. It is postulated that personality dimensions can exert a pathoplastic influence through their capacity to promote adaptive mechanisms. Negative symptoms seem to represent a conglomerate of various phenomena, some of which were preceded by premorbid schizoid traits.