Am J Psychiatry 1980; 137:1419-1421
Copyright © 1980 by American Psychiatric Association
Modern diagnosis schizophrenia in hospitalized psychiatric patients
R Ries, J Bokan and MA Schuckit
The authors applied modern criteria to the diagnosis of 254 patients
admitted to the psychiatric wards of an urban hospital. They found that
only 16 (6.3%) met the St. Louis criteria for schizophrenia. Other studies
using similar criteria also reported a consistently low prevalence of
schizophrenia in general psychiatric inpatient populations. However, 30
"undiagnosed" patients (12%) in this study narrowly missed the definite
diagnosis of schizophrenia because of the presence of affective disorder
and/or insufficient duration of symptoms. The authors discuss the clinical
and research implications of these findings.
