Changes in Subtype Diagnosis of Schizophrenia: 1920-1966

A review of admissions to a general psychiatric hospital over a 47-year period revealed that the diagnoses of catatonic and hebephrenic schizophrenia decreased markedly, that paranoid schizophrenia, with some variation, remained approximately the same, and that there was a great increase in chronic undifferentiated schizophrenia. Possible causes for these findings include changes in definitions and in hospital admission practices; the more effective use of therapy, the degree and type of drug abuse, and the waning interest of psychiatrists in clinical diagnoses may provide other reasons.