[Schizophrenia in adolescents--a follow-up study].

The article presents the results of a catamnesis of patients (both female and male) who had been in-patients for the first time between 1972 and 1978 because of signs and symptoms of schizophrenic diseases and who were between 14 and 18 years of age. For 51 patients data were available on long-term follow-up for at least 5 years. Compared with the available catamneses of adults of the 'seventies, the proportion of chronic cases is greater among the adolescents. The patterns of signs and symptoms do not differ significantly from each other. In addition, it was found that the treatment chain had many weak links despite an improvement due to the setting up of child psychiatry and juvenile psychiatric wards; in other words, treatment was mostly discontinuous and not adapted to long-term course of the disease.