Duration criteria and long-term outcome in affective disorder and schizophrenia

This paper attempts to see whether the shorter duration criteria for affective disorders may naturally result in selecting patients who would show a better long-term outcome than that of schizophrenic patients. Follow-up of 298 patients with mania or depression revealed that those with 6 months or more of symptoms still had a better outcome than the outcome of schizophrenics. Furthermore, their outcome was similar to that of manics and depressives with less than 6 months of symptoms. Therefore, factors other than the shorter duration criterion for affective disorders should be sought to explain their better outcome than that of schizophrenics.