Hallucinogenic drugs as precipitants of schizophrenia

SYSNOPSIS The authors have examined the drug-taking histories of 46 schizophrenics and 46 matched controls. They have found that the schizophrenics on average used a wider variety of drugs, in greater amounts. Schizophrenics who had used drugs experienced the onset of symptoms on average four years earlier than non-users and were also admitted to hospital four years earlier, on average. Those schizophrenics who had used drugs had had better premorbid personalities than the non drug-users. These results are indicative of some precipitating role of drug abuse in the onset of schizophrenia.