FREQUENCY AND PHENOMENOLOGY OF PERSISTING ALTERATIONS IN AFFECTIVE, SCHIZOAFFECTIVE AND SCHIZOPHRENIC DISORDERS - A COMPARISON

Investigating the long-term outcome of affective, schizoaffective and schizophrenic disorders, a model that integrated the operationally gat hered findings with the 'interactional atmosphere' experienced by the clinician was applied. Eight different types of phenomenological const ellations of persisting alterations were delineated (depletion syndrom e, apathetic-paranoid (respectively apathetic-hallucinatory) syndrome, adynamic deficiency syndrome, chronic psychosis, structural deformati on, slight asthenic insufficiency syndrome, chronic subdepressive synd rome, chronic hyperthymic syndrome. Former assumptions that cross-sect ionally the persisting alterations in affective disorders are usually indistinguishable from those in schizophrenia could not be confirmed.