Developmental functions in a chronic psychiatric population: diagnosis

The research in psychopathology has revealed little interest in distinguishing between types of chronic mental patients. Chronics have usually been treated as a homogeneous group, and other possible subtypes have remained undefined because of the "melting-pot" effects of extensive hospitalization. Recently, there has been a renewed interest in the chronic patient, as well as in a differentiation of the largest group of such patients, the chronic schizophrenic. Ss were 129 inpatients at a state mental hospital in Maine. The present report begins the specification of a diagnostic system for chronic patients with the use of tasks that reflect developmental functions. Factor analysis of a set of developmental tasks, ranging from early reflex tests to later cognitive operations, resulted in a test battery which clearly defines specific developmental functions. Of most importance, the clusters of patients derived from these factors exhibited differential profiles indicating strengths and weaknesses on the developmental functions. The assumption of a developmental task sequence was not supported by the results, but the diagnosis of the chronic patient in terms of developmental functions appears promising.