Diagnosis and chronic mental illness.

This paper describes the occurrence of chronicity in varying psychiatric illnesses. There is not an unequivocal definition of chronicity, but with the exception of the illnesses that will be described below and that lead directly or indirectly to death from CNS complications of the illness, chronicity will require a duration of a minimum of five years without a significant remission. Chronicity is further differentiated into four different kinds of chronicity: chronic--death, chronic--self-limited, chronic--remission, and chronic--recurrent. The illnesses that may be considered as possibly fulfilling the criteria for chronic will be noted and a method for deciding whether an illness qualifies will be outlined.