a summary of all information about a patient obtained on a single or several occasions after the end of his initial period under observation.
A catamnesis is prepared after a patient’s discharge from a hospital or after his last examination or treatment. The physician obtains data concerning the patient from a variety of sources: the results of a medical examination, excerpts from the case history, the patient’s answers to questions, and information imparted by the patient’s relatives and persons who know him well. A catamnesis is very important in all branches of medicine, especially in psychiatry. Certain mental disorders have been identified as independent diseases with the help of the catamnesis, such as schizophrenia and manic-depressive psychosis. The catamnesis is helpful in following the progress of psychiatric patients after various methods of treatment and in tracing the history of persons who have had mental diseases in childhood.