1 Chief, Medical Service, and Associate Chief of Staff for Research, Franklin Delano Roosevelt Veterans Administration Hospital, Montrose, New York, U.S.A.
2 Microbiologist, Biochemical Research Laboratory, Franklin Delano Roosevelt Veterans Administration Hospital, Montrose, New York, U.S.A.
3 Professor of Microbiology, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York City, New York, U.S.A.
In this investigation an answer was sought to the question whether there is an altered immunologic and allergic responsiveness in schizophrenic patients. Twenty-one chronic schizophrenic patients and sixteen controls were immunized with diphtheria toxoid and the antibody response was quantitatively determined. The negative skin sensitivity test to diphtheria toxoid was re-tested two months after immunization, and the number who turned positive and the size of the positive reaction was compared in the schizophrenic and control groups.
No statistically significant difference in immune and allergic responses between the two groups was found.
Submitted on March 13, 1970