Copyright
©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Psychiatr. Jun 22, 2015; 5(2): 167-169
Published online Jun 22, 2015. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v5.i2.167
Published online Jun 22, 2015. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v5.i2.167
What is schizophrenia? 25 years of research into schizophrenia - the Age Beginning Course Study
Heinz Häfner, Schizophrenia Research Group, Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim Faculty of Medicine/University of Heidelberg, D-68159 Mannheim, Germany
Author contributions: Häfner H solely contributed to this manuscript.
Supported by The German Research Foundation (DFG) as part of the Special Research Branch (Sonderforschungsbereich) 258 at the Central Institute of Mental Health from January 1, 1987 to December 30, 1998 and from January 1, 1999 to May 31, 2012 as an independent project.
Conflict-of-interest: The ABC Schizophrenia Study was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) as part of the Special Research Branch (Sonderforschungsbereich) 258 at the Central Institute of Mental Health from January 1, 1987 to December 30, 1998 and from January 1, 1999 to May 31, 2012 as an independent project. The author declares that there is no conflict of interests.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Heinz Häfner, MD, PhD, Dr. h.c. mult., Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry, Head, Schizophrenia Research Group, Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim Faculty of Medicine/University of Heidelberg, J5, D-68159 Mannheim, Germany. heinz.haefner@zi-mannheim.de
Telephone: +49-621-17032951
Received: January 16, 2015
Peer-review started: January 20, 2015
First decision: February 7, 2015
Revised: February 23, 2015
Accepted: April 1, 2015
Article in press: April 8, 2015
Published online: June 22, 2015
Peer-review started: January 20, 2015
First decision: February 7, 2015
Revised: February 23, 2015
Accepted: April 1, 2015
Article in press: April 8, 2015
Published online: June 22, 2015
Core Tip
Core tip: We studied schizophrenia from onset to 134 mo following first admission: age at onset is higher for women because of oestrogen. Prodromal schizophrenia and depression split diagnostically only after the onset of positive symptoms. Illness course exhibits a plateau after three years, positive symptoms do so after two, depressive and negative symptoms after three to five years. Depressive mood is the most prevalent symptom. Male first episodes are more frequent and more severe in the first half of life, female ones in the second half. Late-onset schizophrenias feature paranoid delusions, early-onset illnesses various severe pathology. Aetiological conclusions will be drawn.