Epilogue: subtypes of the schizophrenic syndrome--their current status.

The expectation that important subtypes exist in dementia praecox (schizophrenia) was built into the earliest conceptualizations of this disorder by Kraepelin and Bleuler. Although the traditional subtypes are still used, more recent biological, psychological, and descriptive-clinical data suggest that quite different approaches to subtyping and subtyping categories may be more valid. No definitive answers to the subtyping problem have yet been reached, but the solution may well involve a complex consideration of biologic, psychologic, and social variables.