Aspects of the course of bipolar manic-depressive,schizo-affective,and paranoid schizophrenic psychoses

Summary The study deals with the course of three diagnostic groups, namely 50 bipolar manic-depressive, 50 bipolar and manic schizo-affective, and 50 recurrent paranoid psychoses. The patients course was observed over 14–17 years, at least 5 years prospectively. The study concentrates mainly on the prognosis based on the symptomatology observed during the first episode, the stability of the symptoms over several episodes, the residual symptomatology, and the degree of remission during the intervals.Bipolar and schizo-affective psychoses show a similar periodicity. The study further reveals that the periodicity of schizo-affective disorders is mainly linked with the affective symptoms of this disorder. Qualitatively the residual symptoms of bipolar and schizo-affective psychoses differ.Bipolar and phasic paranoid psychoses are quite different with regard to their periodicity and their symptomatology during the episodes and during the intervals.From the Psycho-Neurological Institute in Warsaw, Poland, at present working at the Psychiatric University Hospital, Research Department (Scholarship holder of the Roche Research Foundation and Sandoz, Basel, Switzerland)