catastrophic schizophrenia
schizocaria

Young adults (aged 16-25) were at the highest risk of developing catastrophic schizophrenia.

Eugen Bleuler found that catastrophic schizophrenia affected 10-15% of schizophrenics.

In modern terms, catastrophic schizophrenia would likely be defined as 'acute-onset chronic schizophrenia with poor prognosis'.

Catastrophic schizophrenia was thought to be the most severe subtype of schizophrenia, as it had "an acute onset and rapid decline into a chronic state without remission".

According to Strauss, catastrophic schizophrenia took a similar course to catatonic schizophrenia and hebephrenia, with all three ending in the total collapse into psychosis within two to four years.

Catastrophic schizophrenia was also referred to as schizocaria, which was defined by Mauz as a psychosis that caused the absolute destruction of the core of one's being.

He stated that catastrophic schizophrenia was characterized by an acute onset of a severe psychosis, followed with little improvement by a severe chronic psychosis lasting until death.

The outcome of a study by Luc Ciompi and Christian Müller in 1976 has shown that only 6 percent of schizophrenic patients were judged to be suffering from catastrophic schizophrenia.

In longitudinal studies begun in the 1930's and ending in the 1980's, Manfred Bleuler (Eugen's son) found the incidences of catastrophic schizophrenia had declined significantly since his father's study.

The advent of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), chlorpromazine, and insulin shock therapy, used extensively in the 1940's and 1950's, could have also played a role in eliminating catastrophic schizophrenia.

In psychiatry, catastrophic schizophrenia or schizocaria is an obsolete term for a rare and acute form of schizophrenia leading directly to a severe and unremitting chronic psychosis (the long term occurrence of psychosis) and deterioration of the personality.

The term "catastrophic schizophrenia" has fallen out of use due to a number of reasons, including advances in psychiatric treatment, which led to a significant decline in patients that fit the diagnosis as their symptoms did not reach the severity of catastrophic schizophrenia, along with modern refinement of the definition and subtypes of schizophrenia.

Catastrophic schizophrenia was also referred to as schizocaria, which was defined by Mauz as a psychosis that caused the absolute destruction of the core of one's being.

In psychiatry, catastrophic schizophrenia or schizocaria is an obsolete term for a rare and acute form of schizophrenia leading directly to a severe and unremitting chronic psychosis (the long term occurrence of psychosis) and deterioration of the personality.