[Clinical features of schizophrenia with a malignant course in patients surviving into old age]

A total of 84 senile patients with malignant schizophrenia were examined. These pateints could be divided into 3 groups: with adolescent schizophrenia (with an onset of the disease before 24 years); with schizophrenia in middle age (with an onset of the disease from 25--35 years); with late schizophrenia (with an onset from 40--61 years). It was established, that the clinical and age-associated differences between the groups are distinct only in the initial and manifest stages of the disease. In the terminal period of the disease seen in senescence, there is a complete smoothening of the specific traits of each group, which is due to a formation of a deep defect infrequently associated with pseudosenile traits.