[Schizophrenic prelingual deaf and hearing patients. A comparison of premorbid and current data after several years...

Prelingually deaf persons belonging to a linguistic and cultural minority have to cope with a particular sociocultural situation. The present study endeavours to analyse possible effects of this situation in the course and outcome of schizophrenia. Two samples, one comprising 27 prelingually deaf and one 27 hearing patients, all with schizophrenic psychoses, were parallelised on the basis of gender, age, duration of illness and number of previous hospitalisations. Data were then collected on the premorbid and current social situation and on the psychopathometric outcome after an (on the average) ten-year course. The prelingually deaf patients were much more profoundly impaired with regard to the rating of their residual symptoms and their social situation than those of the hearing control group. Only with respect to vocational rehabilitation did the prelingually deaf patients record a slightly more favourable situation than the hearing patients, as a greater proportion of them had regular employment, in most cases in workshops for the disabled.