IV. General Data and Summary
EARL D. BOND M. D.
There has been built up a library of large cards giving much information about all patients admitted in 10 years before the advent of shock therapies, sulpha drugs, and antibiotics. A similar set of cards covers all patients admitted for 7 years after the new therapies were in operation. (It is planned later to study 3 more years.)
Information includes follow-up for 5 years or more after admission. This is fairly satisfactory for the early cases—half satisfactory for the later ones.
All in all, when shock methods are used in the great groups of patients who show no symptoms of acute or chronic brain disease there is an encouraging increase in recoveries. In psychoses due to infection (including syphilis) there is a lessening of the number brought to a psychiatric hospital. There is a surprising amount of relief given to patients with psychoneuroses who enter a private mental hospital organized for psychotic patients.
With many exceptions, recoveries in the control group seem more stable than those in the shock-treated series.
