Recent stressful life events and episodes of schizophrenia.

Most of the relatively firm evidence on the causal significance of recent stressful life events in episodes of schizophrenia comes from a handful of retrospective case-control studies of schizophrenic patients and from comparisons of schizophrenic patients with patients suffering from affective disorders. Some important additional evidence is available from studies of the occurrence of psychotic symptomatology in extreme situations such as combat during wartime and in nonwesternized societies. On the basis of our analyses of the case-control studies, the literature on extreme situations, and the cross-cultural findings, we conclude that the consensus that stressful life events play only a trivial role in causing schizophrenic episodes is premature.