Wernicke-Kleist-Leonhard phenotypes 
of endogenous psychoses: a review of their validity
. Issue 1 (31st March 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Foucher, Jack R.; Gawlik, Micha; Roth, Julian N.; de Crespin de Billy, Clément; Jeanjean, Ludovic C.; Obrecht, Alexandre; Mainberger, Olivier; Clauss, Julie M. E.; Elowe, Julien; Weibel, Sébastien; Schorr, Benoit; Cetkovich, Marcelo; Morra, Carlos; Rebok, Federico; Ban, Thomas A.; Bollmann, Barbara; Roser, Mathilde M.; Hanke, Markus S.; Jabs, Burkhard E.; Franzek, Ernst J.; Berna, Fabrice; Pfuhlmann, Bruno
• Is Part Of: Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience. Volume 22:Issue 1(2020)
• Page Start: 37
• Page End: 49
• Publication Date: 2020-03-31
• Subjects: schizophrenia -- deep phenotyping -- catatonia -- supersensitivity psychosis -- endogenous psychosis -- phenotype -- periodic catatonia -- cataphasia -- affect laden paraphrenia -- cycloid psychoses -- hebephrenia -- system schizophrenia -- epistemology -- bipolar -- unipolar -- Wernicke -- Kleist -- Leonhard -- classification
• DOI: 10.31887/DCNS.2020.22.1/jfoucher
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1958-5969

Abstract

Abstract : While the ICD-DSM paradigm has been a major advance in clinical psychiatry, its usefulness for biological psychiatry is debated. By defining consensus-based disorders rather than empirically driven phenotypes, consensus classifications were not an implementation of the biomedical paradigm. In the field of endogenous psychoses, the Wernicke-Kleist-Leonhard (WKL) pathway has optimized the descriptions of 35 major phenotypes using common medical heuristics on lifelong diachronic observations. Regarding their construct validity, WKL phenotypes have good reliability and predictive and face validity. WKL phenotypes come with remarkable evidence for differential validity on age of onset, familiality, pregnancy complications, precipitating factors, and treatment response. Most impressive is the replicated separation of high- and low-familiality phenotypes. Created in the purest tradition of the biomedical paradigm, the WKL phenotypes deserve to be contrasted as credible alternatives with other approaches currently under discussion.