Hebephrenic Schizophrenic Reactions

Abstract

Introduction CONSIDERING the vast amount of research in recent years dealing with schizophrenia, it is surprising how little advance has been made in problems of diagnosis and classification. The work of Kraepelin and Bleuler on schizophrenia done more than 50 years ago, apparently still represents the major foundation for the current classification of schizophrenic reactions. This report will deal primarily with one major subtype of schizophrenia, hebephrenic, which although fairly common has been described as the most difficult type to diagnose.^1,6,8,14 It is the type of schizophrenia with the most unfavorable prognosis.^10,15 Bleuler⁴ about 50 years ago, pointed out that catatonic and hebephrenic schizophrenics are about equally represented in the hospital population with the paranoid group somewhat less common. A change in the relative incidence of the various types of schizophrenia seems to have occurred in the last few years. Until about two decades