Are there sex differences in the long-term outcome of schizophrenia? Comparisons with mania, depression, and surgical controls.

Female schizophrenics have been reported to have a better prognosis than male schizophrenics. However, earlier reports rarely used either operational criteria for schizophrenia or appropriate comparison groups. Using data collected as part of a long-term follow-up and family study, the authors examined outcome by sex of 186 schizophrenics, 212 depressives, 86 manics, and 145 surgical controls. When the authors controlled for differences in the age and sex distributions of the diagnostic groups, sex did not make a significant contribution to the explanation of outcome differences between diagnoses or within diagnoses. Examination of outcomes within diagnoses revealed only a nonsignificant trend for female manics to have a better long-term outcome than male manics.