title: The Chestnut Lodge follow-up study. II. Long-term outcome of schizophrenia and the affective disorders.
abstract: This report details the long-term course for systematically rediagnosed (and largely chronically ill) patients with schizophrenia (n = 163) and with bipolar (n = 19) and unipolar (n = 44) affective disorders from the Chestnut Lodge, Rockville, Md, follow-up study. Their conditions were assessed and they are described rigorously from multiple outcome perspectives. Except in the realm of symptomatic diathesis, striking differences emerged between these major axis I disorders consonant with Kraepelin's original observations. Roughly two thirds of the schizophrenic patients were functioning marginally or worse at follow-up, compared with one third of the unipolar cohort. The reverse held for better outcomes. Outcome varied little as a function of follow-up interval (time) across all diagnostic categories. Representative case examples serve to place the ratings in meaningful clinical contexts.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006760:Hospitalization; D006777:Hospitals, Proprietary; D006778:Hospitals, Psychiatric; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010043:Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology