A Five to Fifteen Year Follow-Up Study of Infantile Psychosis

TLDR

Infantile psychosis has a generally poor long‑term prognosis, with many children requiring residential care and persistent social perceptiveness deficits into adulthood. At follow‑up, roughly half of the children were in full‑time residential care, and only 5–17 % were well adjusted.

Abstract

The two major follow-up studies of children suffering from infantile psychosis, that of Kanner's cases (Kanner, 1943 and 1949; Kanner and Eisenberg, 1955; Eisenberg and Kanner, 1956; Eisenberg, 1956; Kanner and Lesser, 1958) and that of psychotic children seen by Creak (1962, 1963a and b) have shown the generally poor prognosis for these children. In both studies about half the children were in full-time residential care (usually mental sub-normality hospitals) at follow-up, and only 5 per cent. to 17 per cent. could be said to be well adjusted. Similar findings have been reported in the other published studies (reviewed in Rutter, 1966a). Kanner and Eisenberg have described the course of the characteristics of aloneness or autism shown by all or nearly all children with infantile psychosis (Kanner, 1943; Kanner and Eisenberg, 1955; Eisenberg and Kanner, 1956). Although some psychotic children emerge from their solitude to a greater or lesser extent, a lack of social perceptiveness usually remains even in adolescence or early adult life.