An evaluation of the Feighner criteria for schizophrenia and affective disorders using long-term outcome data

Schizophrenia and affective disorders selected according to the Feighner criteria can be differentiated on the basis of 40-year outcome. Within schizophrenia the presence of disorganized thoughts at the index admission was associated with poor outcome, whereas better outcome was associated with the presence of delusions or hallucinations. Within the affective disorders, bipolar patients with grandiose delusions or ideas showed a poor outcome; a better outcome was found in unipolar patients with complaints of fatiguability or tiredness at the time of the index admission.