PART I. BACKGROUND ; 1. Twenty-five Years of WHO: Coordinated Activities Concerned with Schizophrenia ; 2. Study Methodology ; PART II. FINDINGS ; 3. An Overview of Course and Outcome in ISoS ; 4. Predictors of Long-Term Course and Outcome for the DOSMeD Cohort ; 5. Long-Term Diagnostic Stability in International Cohorts of Persons with Schizophrenia and Related Psychoses ; 6. Long-Term Mortality Experience of International Cohorts of Persons with Schizophrenia and Related Psychoses ; 7. Identifying Prognostic Factors That Predict Recovery in the Prescence of Loss to Follow-Up ; PART III. THE CENTERS ; SECTION III.B INTERNATIONAL PILOT STUDY OF SCHIZOPHRENIA (IPSS) ; 8. IPSS: Agra, India ; 9. IPSS: Cali, Columbia ; 10. IPSS: Prague, Czech Republic ; SECTION III.B DETERMINANTS OF OUTCOME OF SEVERE MENTAL DISORDER (DISMED) ; 11. Chandigarh, India ; 12. Dublin, Ireland ; 13. Honolulu, Hawai'i ; 14. Moscow, Russia ; 15. Nagasaki, Japan ; 16. Nottingham, UK ; 17. Rochester, New York ; SECTION III.C REDUCTION AND ASSESSMENT OF PSYCHIATRIC DISABILITY (RAPYD OR DISABILITY) ; 18. Groningen, Netherlands ; 19. Mannheim, Germany ; 20. Sofia, Bulgaria ; SECTION III.D RETROSPECTIVE ANALYSIS (RA)/INVITED CENTERS ; 21. Beijing, China ; 22. Hong Kong ; 23. Chennai (Madras), India ; Conclusion

"This brilliantly devised and rigorously conducted research provides a comprehensive assessment of outcome from one of the worlds most feared illnesses. It offers hope and strikes a blow against the stigma of mental illness. It will change forever the social perception of schizophrenia."--Richard Warner, PhD, author of Recovery from Schizophrenia: Psychiatry and Political Economy "Professor Hopper and his colleagues have created an outstanding report on this massive enterprise. The authors provide an important, valuable, and unusual balance in an area often marked by presentation of only a narrow perspective on the complex questions of course and outcome in schizophrenia."--John Strauss, MD, Professor Emeritus, Yale University Medical School "This remarkable volume makes two large and important contributions: it is one of the best global reviews of outcome for people with schizophrenia and it presents an original data set from comparative studies of schizophrenia around the world that offers a simply crucial understanding of outcome for this major mental illness. But it is more than this: the authors manage to combine clinical, epidemiological, and anthropological perspectives about as seamlessly as they can be related. An important achievement!"--Arthur Kleinman, MD, Professor of Medical Anthropology and Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School "Precisely when the zeitgeist seems to have crowned biology as the sole breaking code and means of intervention of schizophrenia, comes this book and widens its spectrum of inquiry, discourse, and course of action. This book is for everyone: clinicians, service users, families, researchers, and planners. ISoS convincingly shows that research and care should be comprehensive: research that integrates biology, psychology, and social sciences may help to break the still elusive total code, while the same triad may help the clinician to assist the patient and the family to face a serious disorder and overcome it."--Itzhak Levav, MD, MSc, Ministry of Health, Israel "Rigorous, sophisticated, methodologically thoughtful. Recovery from Schizophrenia underlines the potential for real recovery for persons with schizophrenia, without sugarcoating the challenges of recovery and the necessity for personal courage, a helpful support system, and appropriate medical services."--Lisa Dixon, MD, MPH, University of Maryland School of Medicine "This is a comprehensive account of the 1990s-initiated International Study of Schizophrenia which was conducted in 14 countries and involved the detailed descriptions of over 1,000 subjects on their long-term course and outcome."--Doody's "This book offers a wealth of information about one of the world's most insidious illnesses and grounds for therapeutic optimism...it should help reduce the stigma of mental illness and may change forever the social perception of schizophrenia."--American Journal of Psychiatry "This remarkable volume makes two large and important contributions: it is one of the best global reviews of outcome for people with schizophrenia and it presents an original data set from comparative studies of schizophrenia around the world that offers a simply crucial understanding of outcome for this major mental illness. But it is more than this: the authors manage to combine clinical, epidemiological, and anthropological perspectives about as seamlessly as they can be related. An important achievement!"--Arthur Kleinman, MD, Professor of Medical Anthropology and Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School "Precisely when the zeitgeist seems to have crowned biology as the sole breaking code and means of intervention of schizophrenia, comes this book and widens its spectrum of inquiry, discourse, and course of action. This book is for everyone: clinicians, service users, families, researchers, and planners. ISoS convincingly shows that research and care should be comprehensive: research that integrates biology, psychology, and social sciences may help to break the still elusive total code, while the same triad may help the clinician to assist the patient and the family to face a serious disorder and overcome it."--Itzhak Levav, MD, MSc, Ministry of Health, Israel "Professor Hopper and his colleagues have created an outstanding report on this massive enterprise. The authors provide an important, valuable, and unusual balance in an area often marked by presentation of only a narrow perspective on the complex questions of course and outcome in schizophrenia."--John Strauss, MD, Professor Emeritus, Yale University Medical School "This brilliantly devised and rigorously conducted research provides a comprehensive assessment of outcome from one of the worlds most feared illnesses. It offers hope and strikes a blow against the stigma of mental illness. It will change forever the social perception of schizophrenia."--Richard Warner, PhD, author of Recovery from Schizophrenia: Psychiatry and Political Economy "Rigorous, sophisticated, methodologically thoughtful. Recovery from Schizophrenia underlines the potential for real recovery for persons with schizophrenia, without sugarcoating the challenges of recovery and the necessity for personal courage, a helpful support system, and appropriate medical services."--Lisa Dixon, MD, MPH, University of Maryland School of Medicine "This is a comprehensive account of the 1990s-initiated International Study of Schizophrenia which was conducted in 14 countries and involved the detailed descriptions of over 1,000 subjects on their long-term course and outcome."--Doody's "This book offers a wealth of information about one of the world's most insidious illnesses and grounds for therapeutic optimism...it should help reduce the stigma of mental illness and may change forever the social perception of schizophrenia."--American Journal of Psychiatry