50 YEARS AFTER BLEULER,MANFRED - WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT LATE-ONSET SCHIZOPHRENIA TODAY

Since Manfred Bleuler's description of the clinical picture of late on set schizophrenia over 50 years ago, debate has persisted as to whethe r it is justifiable to differentiate this as a valid, independent enti ty from the group of classic schizophrenic disorders with early onset. As this review shows, this question cannot be answered unequivocally even now It must rather be remarked that we have neither been able to decisively extend our knowledge since Manfred Bleuler's comprehensive contribution, nor managed to achieve a much sounder basis methodologic ally. The reasons for this are the international conceptual and termin ological confusion that has developed around this illness group, and o n the other hand the methodological limitations of the empirical studi es conducted on this clinical picture so far.