Establishment of Diagnostic Validity in Psychiatric Illness: Its Application to Schizophrenia

¹ Wallace Renard professor and head of the department, psychiatrist-in-chief, Barnes and Renard Hospitals, department of psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, 4940 Audubon Ave., St. Louis, Mo. 63110
² Professor, associate psychiatrist, department of psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, 4940 Audubon Ave., St. Louis, Mo. 63110

A method for achieving diagnostic validity in psychiatric illness is described, consisting of five phases: clinical description, laboratory study, exclusion of other disorders, follow-up study, and family study. The method was applied in this paper to patients with the diagnosis of schizophrenia, and it was shown by follow-up and family studies that poor prognosis cases can be validly separated clinically from good prognosis cases. The authors conclude that good prognosis "schizophrenia" is not mild schizophrenia, but a different illness.

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