Abstract
Aim. It's worth mentioning that Eugen Bleuler, known today for his introduction of the term schizophrenia, described a variety of psychopathological and neuropsychological symptom complexes characterizing the disorder previously known as dementia praecox. Since the beginning of 1970, there has been an attempt to describe prognostic factors for schizophrenia.
Method. Based on the access to the medical history of 41 patients, we made an attempt to describe predictive factors foretelling the course of paranoid schizophrenia. Employing the Horodnicki's software, patients with similar symptoms were divided into smaller subgroups using Steinhaus' algorithm for group and multidimensional analysis. This analysis enables us to select psychopathological and biological factors foretelling the course of paranoid schizophrenia.
Results. The basic and dynamic secretion of some hormones (i.e., TSH, FSH and cortisol) measured before the treatment may support the prospect of survival and recovery from individual and social consequences of paranoid schizophrenia. It turned out that the DSM-III diagnostic criteria for paranoid schizophrenia does not differentiate between patients with more and less negative consequences of the disease. On the contrary, the BPRS Overall diagnostic scale with its seven symptoms may be prognostic for the course of paranoid schizophrenia.
Conclusions. It is possible that the Steinhaus' algorithm for group analysis may be prognostic for the course of newly diagnosed paranoid schizophrenia.