There is significant variability in the course of schizophrenia
(Huber et al., 1979) and a wide range of factors need to be considered
in order to characterize it. Gaebel (2004) reviewed general principles
of course characteristics in mental disorders with an emphasis on affective
disorders and schizophrenia, distinguishing temporal macroaspects
(over months to years in course-type, inter-episode duration,
episode frequency, course regularities, and long-term outcome) from
micro-aspects (days to weeks in illness onset, episode duration, and
short-term outcome). In order to define clinically relevant course
variants of schizophrenia spectrum and other psychotic disorders,
one needs to be able to characterize and code both the current
state (cross-sectional specifier) as well as the longitudinal pattern of
the illness (longitudinal specifier) in the individual patient. ‘Crosssectional’
course specifiers address the issue of whether the patient
fully or partially meets active-phase criteria for schizophrenia and
is presently in episode, in partial or complete remission (Andreasen
et al., 2004; Leucht and Lasser, 2006; van Os et al., 2006), or in a continuous
state of the disorder (Table 4). Additionally, one can note