Psychogenic psychoses A RETROSPECTIVE STUDY WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO CLINICAL COURSE AND PROGNOSIS

Abstract

The study comprises a retrospective evaluation of case records of 220 patients admitted for the first time with psychogenic psychosis with special reference to clinical course and prognosis within a period of 13–14 years. The reliability of the diagnosis at the time of the first admission is about 60% when the evaluation is based on positive criteria for psychosis. If the psychogenic psychoses are divided into subgroups, the reliability of the diagnosis of psychogenic affective psychoses is about 30%, whereas it is over 90% for psychogenic confusional psychoses and psychogenic paranoid psychoses. If subsequent cases of other functional psychoses (manic-depressive psychosis and schizophrenia) are subtracted, the diagnostic reliability is 50% (111 of 220 cases), which represents the number of retrospectively verified psychogenic psychoses. The frequency of recurrence of psychogenic psychosis was 18% (40), corresponding to 36% of psychogenic psychoses verified by retrospective evaluation (111 of 220 cases). The recurrences were mainly homologous, as heterologous recurrences developed only among the psychogenic affective psychoses (slightly less than half of the recurrences in question). Schizophrenia developed in only 10% (23), and subsequent episodes of manic-depressive psychosis occurred in 8% (18). The stability of psychogenic psychosis on recurrence of functional psychosis was 49% expressed in relation to all subsequent cases of functional psychosis. The over-all prognosis for the psychogenic/reactive psychosis is thus good as regards subsequent mental disease. Chronic functional psychosis (schizophrenia) developed in only 10% (and in less than 20% if the prognosis is assessed on the basis of the reliability of the diagnosis at the time of the first admission (about 60%)). However, in the group of psychogenic/reactive psychoses as a whole an overmortality of 100% was observed in the course of the 14 years, highest in the younger age groups.