Prognosis of Schizophrenia Before and After Pharmacotherapy: I. Short Term Outcome

¹ Senior Lecturer and Assistant Director to the Department of Psychiatry, The London Hospital Medical College, London, E.1

In this first part of a two-part study, two groups of 50 schizophrenic patients, Group A and Group B, admitted respectively before (1952-53) and after (1956-57) the introduction into treatment of reserpine and the phenothiazines have been compared with regard to length of stay in hospital and condition at the time of discharge.

In both respects, patients in Group B showed a better prognosis than those in Group A, though the proportion who recovered completely was the same in both groups.

This improvement in short-term prognosis between the two groups applied both to patients who had, and patients who did not have, specific forms of physical treatment (insulin, E.C.T. and drugs). The improved prognosis in the "untreated" patients is probably attributable to differences in selection of patients for treatment in the two groups.

It was concluded that pharmacotherapy has resulted in an improved short-term prognosis in schizophrenia because:

(a) it is at least as effective as previously used treatment—E.C.T. and deep insulin;

(b) it can be applied easily to a larger and less highly selected number of patients.

The improvement in prognosis applies more to patients with an originally poorer prognosis as shown by long duration and gradual onset of illness, a history of a previous admission for schizophrenia, and a diagnosis of the paranoid type of the illness. On the other hand, for patients who were potentially recoverable, treatment was equally successful in both groups.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				J. R Bola Medication-Free Research in Early Episode Schizophrenia: Evidence of Long-Term Harm? Schizophr Bull, April 1, 2006; 32(2): 288 - 296. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]