Here’s info that PubMed has for Either of those studies:
Encephale. 2007 Jan-Feb;33(1):21-9.
[Schizophrenia and culture: reality and perspectives based on the Tunisian experience].
[Article in French]Douki S1, Nacef F, Benzineb S, Ben Amor C.
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Abstract
Despite notable advances in the field, schizophrenia is still considered a major public health problem on international level. The combination of frequency, chronicity and severity make it, for some authors, the "cancer of mental disorders". However, according to the many cross-cultural studies, in particular, the two mammoth research projects of the WHO (IPSS and DOSMED, it is now irrefutable that the course and outcome of schizophrenia are better in patients from developing countries. The reasons for better outcome and more favorable course of schizophrenia in developing countries are still far from clear and remain speculative.
AIM OF THE STUDY:
We have carried out a study among a population of schizophrenic patients admitted to our hospital during the past year, to question the issues of outcome, course and prognosis in Tunisia, which is an emerging country, ranking half-way between the most and the least developed countries.
RESULTS:
It appears that the outcome of schizophrenia is similar to that of developed countries. A community survey reported an annual prevalence of 5.7 and an incidence of 3. 266 patients with schizophrenia were admitted between August 2003 and 2004, representing 40% of the whole hospitalized population; 80% were former patients who had been hospitalized an average of 8 times. One patient out of five will be readmitted at least once within the same year. Only 16.5% were married, and 10% had a regular job, in spite of a high level of education. A chronic course without remission is not unusual and long stay patients now account for a fourth of the hospital population.
COMMENTS:
It seems clearly and paradoxically that the course and outcome of schizophrenia is deteriorating and getting closer to what is observed in the industrialized societies. The same trend was observed in the western countries during the last centuries, leading some authors to claim that schizophrenia is a modern disease, which appeared in the XIX(e) century and spread in the XX(e). Besides, other than the controversy regarding the recent evolution of its incidence, it seems that we are not witnessing the anticipated decrease in incidence that comes with the therapeutic progress and the decline in fertility among individuals with schizophrenia.
DISCUSSION:
We shall discuss three hypotheses to try to explain the aggravation of schizophrenia along with the economic development: the heterogeneity of the disease with two clinical presentations: a benign form (good prognosis), more frequent in developing countries, and a severe form, observed mainly in developed societies. The progress in medicine and gynecology-obstetrics, which contributes to the survival of patients with serious schizophrenia and the vulnerable newborn exposed to multiple assaults and risk factors related to birth. The progress in psychiatry that is selecting the more serious subtypes of schizophrenia, which are overrepresented today. Research issues pertaining to course and outcome of schizophrenia are still unresolved. It is likely that prognosis of schizophrenia varies according to the economic development rather than to the culture. This observation could open new research and prevention perspectives.
PMID: 17457291 DOI: 10.1016/s0013-7006(07)91555-9[Indexed for MEDLINE] Similar articles📷
The International Pilot Study of Schizophrenia has had a major influence on mental health and research practice since its inception in the 1960s. It is most famous for demonstrating superior outcomes for people living with schizophreniain developing countries over those living with schizophrenia in developed countries. Like other international research initiatives, it has been shaped by social, political and economic circumstances that contribute to positive and negative outcomes for participating nations. This paper evaluates the contribution of the pilot study by analyzing the discourse surrounding the dissemination of its results. The discussion of long-term outcomes across cultures is used to scrutinize the process of long-term research collaborations across nations. Discourse analysis of the research records indicates that, in various ways, the discourse was constructed to preserve an image of Western superiority and Third World inferiority. As the international research context shifts in psychiatry, it is hoped that inequitable practices that affect this and other studies will be challenged to benefit knowledge-building and mental health care across the world.
PMID: 12570970 DOI: 10.1016/s0277-9536(02)00051-5[Indexed for MEDLINE] Similar articles📷
Psychiatric hospitalisation rates in Ireland have been high. Recent studies indicate that this is not a consequence of raised incidence. This study explored the possibility that poor outcome may have been responsible for this high hospitalisation prevalence.
METHOD:
Through participation in the WHO Study, Determinants of Outcome of Severe Mental Disorders (DOSMeD), we followed up a cohort of 67 first-onset schizophrenic patients over 15 years to determine symptomatic and functional outcomes and to compare these with outcomes of the cohorts recruited to the International Study of Schizophrenia (ISoS).
RESULTS:
Thirty-seven (55%) of the original 67 were successfully followed up over 15 years and, of these, 43% were continuously psychotic for most of the period; a similar proportion had recurrent episodes of illness; two-thirds of subjects had moderate to severe symptoms for most of the time; and, in terms of functional outcome, over four-fifths were unemployed at follow-up.
CONCLUSIONS:
Outcome for the majority of followed-up patients was poor in symptomatic and functional terms. While this outcome was one of the poorest among the DOSMeD groups the question whether functional psychotic illness outcome is inherently poorer in Ireland than elsewhere remains unanswered. The high rate of attrition (45%) from the group during the follow-up period vitiated interpretation of outcome overall. The high number of suicides among the group was noteworthy.
The World Health Organization's International Pilot Study on Schizophrenia(IPSS) and subsequent Determinants of Outcomes of Severe Mental Disorder (DOSMD) studies have reported that the course of schizophrenia is more favourable in 'developing' than 'developed' societies. The 1992 DOSMD study attributes this difference to culture. We review studies concerning the course of schizophrenia and conclude that the evidence for a more favourable course in developing societies is not conclusive. Indeed, a favourable course has also been reported in various industrialised societies. We also raise questions about the findings reported in the recent DOSMD study, including the conclusion that the putatively more favourable course is a product of culture. Finally, we argue that longitudinal, direct observation of patients in their natural environments must be carried out before variations in the course of schizophrenia can be adequately understood.
PMID: 8173825 DOI: 10.1192/bjp.164.2.222[Indexed for MEDLINE] Similar articles📷
Incidence of schizophrenia in an urban community in madras.
Rajkumar S1, Padmavathi R, Thara R, Menon MS.
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Abstract
The incidence rate of an illness is a vital epidemiological measure for investigating etiology. Incidence estimates of schizophrenia from different parts of the world have shown variations, due to differences in the diagnostic criteria, measurement techniques and operational definitions used. In contrast to the prevalence studies in India, incidence surveys haw been sparse and the rates obtained relatively higher as compared to the west. As part of an ICMR Longitudinal Study of Functional Psychoses in an urban community in Madras, the incidence of schizophrenia was estimated in the slums. The case finding methods included a door to door survey and a leakage study. Cases defined using standardized diagnostic criteria, were identified using IPSS and PSE. The incidence rate was 0.21/1,000 by the community survey and 0.41/1,000 by the leakage study. This paper describes the study and discusses its relevance in India.
[An international study of the course and outcome of schizophrenia coordinated by the World Health Organization].
[Article in Czech]Dragomirecká E1, Skoda C.
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Abstract
Psychiatry Demography Unit of Psychiatric Center Prague is one of the participating sites in the transcultural study on Long-term Course and Outcome of Schizophrenia coordinated by World Health Organization (WHO). The aim of the project is to learn more about factors predicting the long-term course and outcome and to investigate socio-cultural differences in schizophrenic patients. The present research builds upon the earlier WHO coordinated studies: International Pilot Study of Schizophrenia (IPSS) carried out in 1968-1969 in 13 centers including Czechoslovakia (N = 1202) and Study on Determinants of Outcome of Severe Mental Disorder (DOSMed) taken place between 1978-1980. The finding of IPSS and DOSMed were notable: incidence of narrowly defined schizophrenia did not vary greatly across cultures in opposite of the variation of short term outcome of illness that was more favourable in developing than in industrialized nations. The present follow-up study of the DOSMed and the IPSSpatients (after 14 and 24 years) allow the examination of a large enough sample in a relatively short time and facilitate the development of new instruments, which provide a unique opportunity of their further cultural valid application for our center.
PMID: 1451203[Indexed for MEDLINE] Similar articles
Publication types, MeSH terms
Select item 19195537.J Nerv Ment Dis. 1991 Sep;179(9):517-25.
The prediction of outcome in schizophrenia. IV: Eleven-year follow-up of the Washington IPSS cohort.
Carpenter WT Jr1, Strauss JS.
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Abstract
Two- and five-year follow-up observations of the International Pilot Study of Schizophrenia's Washington cohort provided data bearing on several controversial issues regarding the course of schizophrenia. Forty schizophrenic patients have now been observed 11 years after their index admission. Social, occupational, hospital utilization, and symptom areas of functioning continue to be only modestly correlated with one another and do not become increasingly uniform over time. Initial prognostic variables continue to be more predictive of long-term outcome than are cross-sectional symptom manifestations. Restricted affect at the initial evaluation had been a predictor of 5-year outcome, but it was not a significant predictor of outcome at 11 years. While serious long-term consequences of illness are observed, the follow-up data suggest that the illness tends to reach a plateau of psychopathology early in the course, with as many patients tending to improve in the long-term as those who tend to show further deterioration.
PMID: 1919553 DOI: 10.1097/00005053-199109000-00001[Indexed for MEDLINE] Similar articles
Care strategies for schizophrenic patients in a transcultural comparison.
von Zerssen D1, León CA, Möller HJ, Wittchen HU, Pfister H, Sartorius N.
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Abstract
This study was conducted in order to test the hypothesis derived from the International Pilot Study of Schizophrenia (IPSS) that the existence of extended families in developing countries contributes to the more favorable course and outcome of schizophrenia in these countries in comparison with industrial countries. For this purpose, we compared data from the 5- and 10-year follow-up obtained within the IPSS at Cali, Colombia with data from two 5- to 8-year follow-up studies of former schizophrenic inpatients of the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry (MPIP) in Munich, FRG. Although, in Cali, schizophrenics are hospitalized and treated with drugs only during acute episodes of the psychosis and no facilities exist for long-term treatment, the psychopathological outcome was, on the whole, not worse than in Munich. Furthermore, the duration of hospitalization during the follow-up period was much lower at Cali and a significantly lower number of Colombian than of German patients was not separated from their families. However, contrary to the hypothesis, family size did not predict course and outcome at both centers.
PMID: 2225798 DOI: 10.1016/0010-440x(90)90024-m[Indexed for MEDLINE] Similar articles📷
On the significance of an anthropological approach to schizophrenia.
Fabrega H Jr1.
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Abstract
Psychotic disturbances like those termed schizophrenia are universal in human groups. Anthropological and social historical studies underscore the varied appearance and significance of such disturbances. In contemporary psychiatry, neurobiological emphases and the exigencies of positivistic research have tended to standardize the picture of schizophrenia. This is reflected in the rationale, methodology and results of the International Pilot Study of Schizophrenia (IPSS), which have tended to support the validity of diagnostic criteria that have evolved in modern Western European societies. Thus, contemporary psychiatric theory appears to stipulate a homogeneous picture of a phenomenon that abounds with social, cultural and psychological complexity as well as human poignancy. There are reasons for challenging this picture of schizophrenia and the biases and limitations in it. Reductionistic and standardized accounts may further immediate, short-range, and practical needs, but they be-cloud academic questions having wide-ranging significance in psychiatry, the social sciences, and the humanities.
PMID: 2648433 DOI: 10.1080/00332747.1989.11024429[Indexed for MEDLINE] Similar articles📷
Long term course and outcome of the Agra cases in the International Pilot Study of Schizophrenia.
Dube KC, Kumar N, Dube S.
Abstract
The course and outcome at a 13-14-year follow-up of the Agra cases in the International Pilot Study of Schizophrenia (IPSS) was observed by two methods: i) through a mailed questionnaire to assess the key respondents own perception of their state, ii) by a thorough clinical examination and assessment using standard instruments. The results of these two methods were compared and no significant difference found. Based on the second method it was found that 46% of schizophrenics and 43% of manic-depressives had one or two episodes during the first 5 years after inclusion and none in the subsequent period of 8 to 9 years (up to the present follow-up). The results indicate that the illness loses its intensity over a period of years. Mortality among schizophrenics was higher than the expected rate in a general population. The suicide rate was similar to that reported in other studies.
PMID: 6485851 DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-0447.1984.tb01195.x[Indexed for MEDLINE] Similar articles📷
A symptom based approach to the diagnosis of schizophrenia.
Packer S, Engelsmann F.
Abstract
This study reviews the attempts of Carpenter et al to develop valid diagnostic criteria of schizophrenia by means of a flexible 12 point system of signs and symptoms based on the IPSS. The authors applied the 12-point system to 67 inpatients and obtained different levels of certainty in identifying proportions of schizophrenic and non-schizophrenic patients: 80% of clinically diagnosed schizophrenic patients obtained 5 or more points. Kappa statistics revealed a 0.59 proportion of agreement in excess to chance between clinical and experimental diagnosis of schizophrenia, indicating the clinical usefulness of the 12 point system.
PMID: 6640485 DOI: 10.1177/070674378302800613[Indexed for MEDLINE] Similar articles📷
The files of 283 hospitalized patients discharged with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, schizoaffective schizophrenia, or paranoid state were examined without knowledge of the patient's subsequent history. These patients, most of whom had originally been diagnosed by DSM-I criteria, were retrospectively diagnosed by New York Research Diagnostic Criteria (RDC), the New Have Schizophrenia Index (NHSI), the St. Louis criteria, Taylor-Abrams 1978 criteria, Schneider's first-rank symptoms (FRS), the Washington IPSS 12-Point Flexible System, Astrup's process/nonprocess distinction, and DSM-III. Kappa values measuring pairwise diagnostic agreement amont the nine systems were typically low except among RDC, DSM-III, and St. Louis criteria. Long-term followup status was not significantly predicted by the FRS, NHSI, or Taylor-Abrams criteria. Diagnosis by means of the other systems, especially the Astrup process/nonprocess distinction, was significantly correlated with followup. However, Astrup's "process" schizophrenia is not operationally defined and could not be expected to be used with the degree of interrater reliability desired by researchers. On the other hand, of the operationally defined systems, DSM-III schizophrenia has the highest correlation with followup and is thus suggested for use by researchers desiring a highly homogeneous, although narrowly defined, population. Investigators wishing to cast a wider net could use a less restrictive system such as the RDC, with or without schizoaffectives included.
PMID: 6953455 DOI: 10.1016/0165-1781(82)90001-4[Indexed for MEDLINE] Similar articles📷
[Relevant predictors of the 5 year outcome of patients with schizophrenic or similar paranoid psychoses (author's transl)].
[Article in German]Möller HJ, Werner-Eilert K, Wüschner-Stockheim M, von Zerssen D.
Abstract
In a 5 year follow-up study of 81 patients suffering from schizophrenic or similar psychoses many of the predictors known from the literature concerning the outcome of schizophrenia were confirmed. In accordance with the results of the follow-up study on patients from the International Pilot Study of Schizophrenia(IPSS), long lasting professional disintegration and psychiatric hospitalisation preceding index-admission were of special prognostic importance. However in contrast to this follow-up study, other psychopathological data, especially minus symptoms proved to be of considerable prognostic significance. As a result of stepwise multiple regression analyses, combinations of the 5 best characteristics for each outcome-criterion have been found which explain a significantly greater part of the variance than single characteristics.
PMID: 7115050 DOI: 10.1007/bf00345587[Indexed for MEDLINE] Similar articles
[Evaluation of the recuperability of schizophrenic patients based on serial use of IPSS questionnaires].
[Article in Romanian]Sîrbu A, Chirtoc E, Fodoreanu L, Paina G, Gheorghiu S, Mureşan A, Vilceanu E, Cătinaş E.PMID: 6454242[Indexed for MEDLINE] Similar articles
The relationship of 'nuclear' and 'atypical' psychoses: some proposals for a classification of disorders in the borderlands of schizophrenia.
Roth M, McClelland H.
Abstract
The paper sets out the arguments in favour of utilising both a 'strict' definition corresponding to the 'nuclear' concept of schizophrenia and a 'broader' definition that also subsumes 'atypical' schizophreniform and related syndromes. Evidence is adduced rejecting the view that attempts to effect a complete separation between 'nuclear' and other forms of schizophrenic disorders based on phenomenological, hereditary, prognostic, etiological and other lines. Both the unity and the diversity of the schizophrenic family of disorders must be given explicit recognition in clinical and scientific work. The value of the 'nuclear' concept has been demonstrated by the IPSS study among other enquiries. The advantages of the broad definition are twofold. It makes for a flexibility and openness of approach in diagnosis and treatment of schizophrenia that are indespensable at the present time. The value of the 'broad' definition is that it encompasses a range of phenomena that have been shown to be related to one another. They may therefore be compared and contrasted. It is argued that new knowledge about the etiology of schizophrenia may be acquired in this manner. Tentative definitions for the 'nuclear' and 'broad' groups of disorder are given.
PMID: 472353[Indexed for MEDLINE] Similar articles
Cross-cultural differences in the short-term prognosis of schizophrenic psychoses.
Sartorius N, Jablensky A, Shapiro R.
Abstract
Results of the 2-year followup of the patients included in the International Pilot Study of Schizophrenia (World Health Organization 1973) indicate that patients diagnosed schizophrenic on the basis of standardized assessments and clearly specified criteria demonstrated very marked variations of course and outcome over a 2-year period. Schizophrenic patients in the centers in developing countries had, on the average, considerably better course and outcome than schizophrenic patients in the centers in developed countries. Part of the variation of course and outcome was related to sociodemographic (e.g., social isolation and marital status) and clinical (e.g., type of onset and precipitating factors) predictors, but another larger part remained statistically unexplained. This suggests that variables usually used to describe psychopathology, the environment, and history of psychiatric patients in European and North American cultures may not account for cross-cultural differences. Clinical diagnosis on initial evaluation appeared to be a good predictor of subsequent symptomatology, but not of the length of the episodes, the total time during which the patient would be psychotic, pattern of course, or the degree of social impairment. A 5-year followup of the IPSS patients has also been completed, and the collected data are being analyzed.
PMID: 746359 DOI: 10.1093/schbul/4.1.102[Indexed for MEDLINE] Similar articles📷