Am J Psychiatry 1989; 146:1280-1284
Copyright © 1989 by American Psychiatric Association
Risk of schizophrenia in character disordered patients
WS Fenton and TH McGlashan
Chestnut Lodge Research Institute, Rockville, MD 20850.
Inpatients from the Chestnut Lodge follow-up study diagnosed with character
disorder were studied to predict future schizophrenic decompensation.
Individually, three DSM-III criteria for schizotypal personality disorder
predicted schizophrenia at long-term follow-up: magical thinking,
suspiciousness or paranoid ideation, and social isolation. Additionally,
lower IQ, poorer premorbid quality of work, and transient delusional
experiences were predictive. No borderline personality disorder criterion
was predictive. This suggests that schizotypal but not borderline
personality disorder belongs in the schizophrenic spectrum. Within
schizotypal personality disorder, criteria from both familial and clinical
traditions appear to be dimensions of vulnerability to psychosis.
