Summers F, Hersh S
Schizophr Bull. 1983;9(1):122-33. doi: 10.1093/schbul/9.1.122.
The relationship between psychiatric chronicity and schizophrenia in the postacute phase was examined by comparing posthospitalized chronic schizophrenics and chronic nonschizophrenics on symptoms, social functioning, and recidivism. No differences were found between the groups on any of these variables, indicating a general similarity of clinical picture for chronic schizophrenics and chronic nonschizophrenics in the postacute phase. These results were contrasted with two other comparisons made irrespective of diagnosis: (1) Patients with better social functioning were compared to patients performing less well socially; (2) patients living with others were compared with patients living in isolated settings. In both these comparisons, significant differences in the clinical picture were found between the two groups. Thus, living situation and degree of social functioning both appear to have more relevance for the postacute phase than does diagnosis. These results were related to the genetic and outcome literature on chronic psychiatric disorder to advance the view that the diagnosis of chronicity is more crucial for the understanding of severe emotional disorders than the traditional symptom-based DSM-III classification system.
通过比较出院后的慢性精神分裂症患者和慢性非精神分裂症患者在症状、社会功能和复发方面的情况，研究了急性后期精神疾病慢性化与精神分裂症之间的关系。在这些变量上，两组之间未发现差异，这表明急性后期慢性精神分裂症患者和慢性非精神分裂症患者的临床表现总体相似。这些结果与另外两项不考虑诊断的比较形成对比：（1）社会功能较好的患者与社会功能较差的患者进行比较；（2）与他人同住的患者与独居的患者进行比较。在这两项比较中，两组之间在临床表现上均发现了显著差异。因此，生活状况和社会功能程度在急性后期似乎比诊断更具相关性。这些结果与关于慢性精神疾病的遗传学和转归文献相关，以推进这样一种观点，即对于理解严重情绪障碍而言，慢性化的诊断比传统的基于症状的《精神疾病诊断与统计手册》第三版分类系统更为关键。
