INSULIN THERAPY OF SCHIZOPHRENIA IN THE ELGIN STATE HOSPITAL
GERT HEILBRUNN M. D.1, and
RUTH STERNLIEB M. D.1
1 The Elgin State Hospital, Elgin, Ill.
Three hundred fifteen schizophrenic patients treated during a period of almost three years showed 72 per cent recoveries and 10 per cent social remissions in cases with a duration of psychosis less than seven months, 35 per cent and 20 per cent respectively in the group ill from 7 to 18 months and 10 per cent for cases over 18 months duration.
A similar percentage was obtained in patients who had not responded to previous metrazol therapy.
There were 15 per cent relapses in the first two groups.
The treatment with insulin and metrazol simultaneously did not benefit patients who had failed to respond previously to either therapy. For this reason and also because of the disproportionately severe toxic changes in the cerebral ganglion cells of similarly treated rabbits this modification was discontinued.
No fatalities or lasting serious complications were encountered.
Epileptiform seizures occurring in 33 per cent of the patients had no therapeutic effect. No spinal fractures were found in a sampling of patients.
The number of relapses was especially high in cases which had had previous spontaneous remissions. The chance of another recovery decreases with each relapse. No definite criteria for a future relapse could be established from the patient's history before, or the symptomatology during the psychosis. The relapses occurred most frequently within six months after discontinuance of treatment.
A group of failures was compared with a group of recovered patients as to symptomatology of the psychosis and evaluation of personality factors. This study failed to furnish any fundamental differences. A practical prognostic help was found in the patient's reaction to intravenous sodium amytal.
