[Clinical features of the initial manifestations of slowly-progressing schizophrenia]

On examining 200 patients with slowly progressing schizophrenia it was found that the initial psychopathological disturbances appeared in most cases (in 122 patients) at an age under 20 years, while the distinct progress of the disease was noted much later, in the third or the fourth decade of the life. In 31.5% of the observations, the initial disorders were autochthonous, while in 68.5% they were provoked mainly by psychogenic and environmental factors. A comparison of the autochthonous and provoked initial disturbances showed that both types were presented by affective and obsessive-phobic disorders which could be detected long before the appearance of the clinical manifestation of the process. Clinical aspects of the initial disorders, their time course and interconnections with the symptoms of the subsequent, more advanced stages of the disease are analyzed. The author concludes that the disorders discussed belong to the latent stage of slowly progressing schizophrenia.