McLean-Harvard International First-Episode Project: Two-Year Stability of DSM-IV Diagnoses in 500 First-Episode Psychotic Disorder Patients.

The article discusses a study which evaluated psychotic patients in the McLean-Harvard International First Episode Project. Results showed that diagnoses remained stable in 77.6% of patients. Most changed diagnoses were to schizoaffective disorder, bipolar I disorder and schizophrenia. Diagnostic change was linked with nonaffective psychosis and auditory hallucinations. It is concluded that diagnostic changes involved emergence of affective symptoms and predicted by premorbid factors.