Am J Psychiatry 1985; 142:827-832
Copyright © 1985 by American Psychiatric Association
Subtype stability in schizophrenia
KS Kendler, AM Gruenberg and MT Tsuang
The authors examine the long-term stability of the subtypes of
schizophrenia defined by four diagnostic systems. When all patients were
considered, agreement between subtype assigned at index and follow- up was
modest. This agreement increased considerably when only patients diagnosed
as paranoid, hebephrenic, or catatonic at both index and follow-up were
considered. As for individual subtypes, stability was highest for paranoid
schizophrenia, intermediate for hebephrenia, and virtually absent for
undifferentiated schizophrenia. The stability of paranoid schizophrenia was
greatest when onset occurred after age 30. As length of follow-up
increased, a larger proportion of patients were diagnosed as
undifferentiated or residual.
