Outcome after 40 years in DSM-III schizophreniform disorder.

In an earlier report, we described the course of the index episode and the family history of patients with schizophreniform disorder, schizophrenia, or affective disorder. Those data indicated that DSM-III schizophreniform disorder defined a heterogeneous group that bore a closer relationship to schizophrenia than to affective disorder. The present report extends the study of these same patients to a 40-year field follow-up. As the earlier short-term and family history findings predicted, marital, occupational, mental, and residential status ratings for the schizophreniform group assumed intermediate positions between those for patients with affective disorder and those for schizophrenics but fell closer to the latter. Contrary to the short-term outcome findings, the present data show no relationship between illness duration at index admission and outcome status ratings after 40 years.