Schizophrenia: Diagnostic Criteria and Outcome

The files of a cohort of schizophrenic patients who were admitted to hospital for the first time in their lives in 1963, and who were representative of cases in a large unselected population, were examined, first by exclusion criteria, and then by the diagnostic criteria of Schneider's first-rank symptoms, Feighner et al's criteria, and the New Haven Schizophrenia Index (NHSI). Forty-three such cases were found who were schizophrenic on at least two sets of criteria, and who were followed up in 1977. Examination of the outcome showed no relationship with FRS presence or absence or number of first-rank symptoms, nor with the NHSI score, but did show a relationship to the Feighner et al criteria and an even stronger relationship to a simple score derived from these criteria.