Duration of the untreated psychosis is considered by some authors as a true independent causal variable which influences the evolution of schizophrenia. For others, its effect on the evolutionary course of the disease is limited in time and it is only present in the short and medium term.

Determine the evolutionary consequences of the duration of untreated psychosis in schizophrenia in the first 5 years after the contact with the care structures.

Retrospective study relating to the patients of the Razi hospital reached of schizophrenia admitted in 2004 and 2005 and followed over 5 years.

Our sample consisted of 91patients.

We found a linear positive association between the duration of the untreated psychosis and the age at admission (p < 0,0005), and a negative correlation with the speed of symptoms control regarding the delusions and hallucinations with index of significance respectively of 0,013 and 0,008, as well as the quality of remission to 2 (p = 0,009) and 5 years (p = 0,001).

We can affirm that the duration of the untreated psychosis is a variable dependant on several other factors, and that it has an unquestionable impact on several evolutionary aspects of schizophrenic pathology.