A Stressful Social Situation as a Precipitant of Schizophrenic Symptoms: An Epidemiological Study

¹ Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Howard University Medical School, Washington, D.C.
² Clinical Director, The Psychiatric Institute of Washington, D.C., 2141 K Street, N.W., Washington, D.C.

By reviewing the service records of every uncommissioned soldier in the U.S. Army who was hospitalized for schizophrenia during the period 1956-1960, it has been found that the rate of hospitalization for schizophrenia is markedly increased in the early months of military service as compared with the second year. The case records of two samples of patients were reviewed in order to determine whether the detection of chronic cases could have accounted for this finding. The results indicate that the early detection of chronic cases probably accounts for only a very small part of the differential rate and that the findings therefore represent a genuine increase in the rate of onset of acute schizophrenic symptoms during the early months of service. This conclusion is consistent with the hypothesis that a situation producing an intense need for social adaptation is an effective precipitant of acute schizophrenic symptoms in individuals predisposed to develop the schizophrenic syndrome.

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