Clinical courses of hypochondriac-cenesthopathic symptoms in schizophrenia

The systematic detailed clinical studies regarding bodily complaints in schizophrenics are relatively few. This paper focuses on the longitudinal courses of hypochondriac-cenesthopathic (H-C) symptoms in schizophrenia. From a group of 183 subjects meeting DSM-III-R criteria for schizophrenia, who were observed for at least 5 years, 81 patients with H-C symptoms were selected. The pattern of the appearance of their H-C symptoms was investigated. There was a near equality in the incidence of acute type and chronic type H-C symptoms. This was also the case for the early and tardive types. On the other hand, the complex type was more frequent than the simple type. When the H-C symptoms occurred in the acute stage, there existed accompanying symptoms as a rule. Among the six clinical courses (subtypes) of H-C symptoms, the most frequent was the acute-complex-early type, the least frequent was the chronic-simple-early type.