Short-Distance Prognosis of Schizophrenia

To make an assessment of the value of the new methods of treatment of schizophrenia by hypoglycxemia or convulsions, it is necessary to have com- parative material on the course of the disease without such treatment. The ideal method of obtaining such material would be by the provision of a control series of cases, selected at the same time and in the same way as a treatment series, and by the comparison of these two groups one with another. The obstacles in the way of any such investigation are, however, very considerable: it is, for instance, very difficult to refuse treatment to a suitable case for purely scientific reasons, especially if one has any strong belief in the value of treatment. The testing of a system of treatment by simultaneous controls can only be carried out at a time when no one has any great faith in the value of the treatment. In the case of the modern treatment of schizophrenia, this time is already past. It remains, therefore, to provide comparative figures on the course of the disease without active treatment from the data of previous years.