[Methodology of comparative epidemiologic research and features of the distribution of schizophrenia in different regions of the country].

In order to study the reliability of the methodology in a syndromological identification of schizophrenic patients, the authors accomplished the following study of schizophrenic patients in one of the districts of Moscow where the disease lasted for more than 30 years. A verification of the epidemiological material, convened according to a common programme and the method of identification was made in separate districts of Ivanovo and the Andizhan Region. The results of these studies detected a relatively high unanimous evaluation of the mental state by different psychiatrists on the syndromological level, not only at the moment of examination, but in a retrospective analysis of the clinical signs of the disease during different stages of the disease. Using schizophrenia as a model the authors demonstrated the effectiveness of a syndromological identification in patients and the method of comparative-epidemiological analysis for the studies of the prevalence of mental disorders and detection of factors (including border-line pathology) influencing the indices of prevalence, clinical content and formation of different types of the disease.