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The British Journal of Psychiatry (1965) 111: 503-510. doi: 10.1192/bjp.111.475.503
© 1965 The Royal College of Psychiatrists
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Treatment of Schizophrenia

An Experimental Study of Five Treatment Methods

PHILIP R. A. MAY M.B., B.Chir., M.D., M.R.C.P., D.P.M.1 and A. HUSSAIN TUMA Ph.D.2

1 Clinical Director, Neuropsychiatric Institute, University of California at Los Angeles
2 Research Specialist (Psychology), Camarillo State Hospital, Camarillo, California

Forty-seven male and fifty-three female first admission schizophrenic patients in the middle section of the prognostic range were assigned by a random method to five treatment groups— "control" or basic care alone; "individual psychotherapy alone" tranquilizing drug alone"; "electroshock"; "individual psychotherapy plus tranquilizing drug". Treatment was given under close supervision under public mental hospital conditions, and multi-disciplinary evaluation was carried out before and after treatment, with follow up for three years after first admission.

Patients treated with drugs, with or without psychotherapy, did significantly better than the control group, in terms of nurses' ratings on the MACC and psychoanalysts' ratings on the Menninger Health-Sickness Rating Scale. On both measures, "drug" patients did better than those given E.C.T. or psychotherapy, but this was statistically significant only for the MACC.

Patients given E.C.T. spent less time in hospital during the three years after first admission than those in the other groups, the difference being statistically significant for the comparison with the "control" and "psychotherapy" groups only. There were no significant differences in re-admission rates, nor was there any indication of significant interaction between the effects of drug and psychotherapy.

Since it is unlikely that any one treatment will be uniformly effective for all patients in every situation, it is important to use some discretion in the interpretation and application of these results. The writers hope to be able at some time in the future to report longer periods of follow up with criteria relevant to a wider scope of post-hospital performance and level of adjustment; and also to examine the problem of which type of patient responds best, or in what way, to a particular type of treatment.

Submitted on August 4, 1964




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B.-C. Ho, N. C. Andreasen, M. Flaum, P. Nopoulos, and D. Miller
Untreated Initial Psychosis: Its Relation to Quality of Life and Symptom Remission in First-Episode Schizophrenia
Am J Psychiatry, May 1, 2000; 157(5): 808 - 815.
[Abstract] [Full Text]


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