Using cross-sectional evaluations 40 years after index admissions, the
authors compared depressed patients with mood-congruent and those with
mood-incongruent psychotic features. These patients were then compared with
patients with nonpsychotic major depression, schizophreniform disorder, or
schizophrenia. Outcome in the mood-congruent group resembled that in the
nonpsychotic group and was significantly better than that in the
mood-incongruent group. Patients in this latter group, however, had
significantly better follow-up scores than did schizophrenic patients.
These findings are consistent with a short-term outcome and family history
study and suggest that patients with major depression and mood-incongruent
psychotic features constitute a more diagnostically heterogeneous group
than do those with mood-congruent psychotic features.Abstract Teaser