RESUMO
Two groups of patients with a favourable and unfavourable prolonged course of manic-depressive psychosis (161 patients) were compared using computerized selection of the relevant sings and prognostically significant combinations of the signs. Out of the 39 clinical signs characteristic of the initial period of the disease, prognostically significant were the recurrence of psychotic attacks, severity of affective pathology, presence of cyclothymic states and their nature, manifestations of affective pathology (depressive or other) at the beginning of the first phase of psychosis and the severity of somato-vegetative disorders in this pathology. Additionally, the prognostic signs were identified in relation to sex. Combinations of these signs do not determine prognosis in all cases but make it far more probable.