ABSTRACT
The International Pilot Study of Schizophrenia (IPSS) demonstrated that transcultural comparative studies of mental disorders are feasible and that valid and reliable instruments for the assessment of these disorders in different cultures can be produced. It also showed that similar cases of schizophrenia exist in different cultures (WHO 1973, 1975). The most surprising finding of the IPSS, however, was that schizophrenic disorders in different cultures, although indistinguishable at the point of inclusion in the study, have a markedly different evolution and that the differences in their course and outcome are systematic, not random: favourable course and outcome of schizophrenia was significantly more frequent among patients in the developing countries than among patients in highly industrialized countries (WHO 1979).
