Among 30 women suffering from a postpartum psychosis without affective syndrome, and for whom this episode of illness was the first leading to psychiatric hospitalisation, 19 fulfilled in the long-term course the DSM-III-R criteria for schizophreniform psychosis (SCHF) or brief reactive psychosis (BRP), and 11 fulfilled the criteria for schizophrenia (SCH). The two groups were compared in order to investigate their nosological relation. Patients with SCHF or BRP more often had the symptomatology of cycloid psychoses and signs of confusion, the onset of illness was more frequently abrupt and the age at the index delivery tended to be lower (p < 0.07) than in patients with SCH. No case of SCHF or BRP was observed at the index episode that later developed into SCH. These findings, together with the different liability to puerperal decompensations, suggest that SCHF and BRP beginning in the postpartum period are nosologically distinct from SCH.