RESUMEN
OBJECTIVE: It is often assumed that there is a predictive relationship between the onset of psychiatric disorder in young adulthood and the severity of their course. Because the significance is rather contradictive and poorly backed by empirical data, we have investigated this issue by a catamnestic approach. METHOD: From 96 inpatients aged between 18 to 25 years with a first manifestation of a "psychogenetic" disorder 54 % were studied 8.6 +/- 1.5 year later. RESULT: In general there was a positive development as well psychopathological as social, although complete normalisation was not reached. CONCLUSIONS: This result is almost identical with catamnestic findings with comparative studies on older patients . Our findings do not support the concept of negative predictive value of first manifestation of psychogenetic disorder in early adulthood.