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Received wisdom and a substantial body of epidemiological work indicate that early psychosis bodes ill for matrimonial prospects. Using follow-up data from ISoS, the WHO-Collaborative International Study of Schizophrenia, we confirm an earlier local finding that marital success, 15 years after first-break psychosis, is quite favourable in India: 74% for women, 71% for men, compared with elsewhere: 48% for women, 28% for men. This comparative advantage applies to both marriages contracted after onset of psychosis as well as those that survive it, and is the more remarkable for occurring in a culture where the stigma attached to mental illness with regard to marriage is especially heavy. The presence of children and availability of household assistance both appear to enhance odds of successful marriage. That expressed worries about marriage proved so poor a guide to actual performance (and, indeed, survive living proof to the contrary in the families reporting the stigma) suggests that inquiries into stigma should be reworked as larger inquiries into local moral economies of worth. In the dharma-governed world of Hindu India resistance to the cultural opprobrium attached to madness is not a strategic assault on a structured source of shame and discrimination, but a tactical manoeuvre in the name of a higher cultural good - family, the lineage and the social order. Restoring this social basis of self-respect repairs what would otherwise be a disabling breach in the normal maturation process; developmental continuity, in turn, may help explain India's favourable rates of recovery from psychotic disorder. By the same token, the lack of coordinate processes in cultures where transitions to adulthood are poorly marked and post-hospital expectations are low may help to explain the common experience of 'social defeat', and poor outcome, in the lives of former psychiatric patients in the West. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Poorly defined cohorts and weak study designs have hampered cross-cultural comparisons of course and outcome in schizophrenia.Aims: To describe long-term outcome in 18 diverse treated incidence and prevalence cohorts. To compare mortality, 15- and 25-year illness trajectory and the predictive strength of selected baseline and short-term course variables.Methods: Historic prospective study. Standardised assessments of course and outcome.Results: About 75% traced. About 50% of surviving cases had favourable outcomes, but there was marked heterogeneity across geographic centres. In regression models, early (2-year) course patterns were the strongest predictor of 15-year outcome, but recovery varied by location; 16% of early unremitting cases achieved late-phase recovery.Conclusions: A significant proportion of treated incident cases of schizophrenia achieve favourable long-term outcome. Sociocultural conditions appear to modify long-term course. Early intervention programmes focused on social as well as pharmacological treatments may realise longer-term gains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]