Prognosis in Functional Psychoses; Clinical, Social and Genetic Aspects.

Abstract

One of the most tedious, and therefore one of the most neglected, tasks in psychiatry is the analysis of follow-up data in the functional psychoses. The Scandinavian countries with their relatively small and homogeneous population present some of the best opportunities for this work. The authors have done a comprehensive 5-year follow-up study on all of the first admissions (1102) to the Gaustad Hospital (Norway) between 1938 and 1950. They present conclusions drawn from a multifactorial analysis of clinical, social, hereditary, and physiological (conditioned reflex) factors. Many time-honored prognostic factors were examined, such as length of illness, socioeconomic status, intelligence, heredity, premorbid personality, work record, marital status, and length of illness. The study relies heavily on previous prognostic work by Langfeldt, et al, which, unfortunately, is not summarized adequately although it is frequently referred to in the text. Many American psychiatrists and psychoanalysts will find difficulty in following the authors'