A STUDY OF MALNUTRITION IN CHRONIC SCHIZOPHRENIA
CRAWFORD N. BAGANZ M. D., and
JAMES M. NORRIS M. D.1
1 Veterans Administration, Lyons, N. J.
1. On admission, the degree of malnutrition found in chronic schizophrenic patients is not significantly different from that found in the entire hospital population.
2. While the entire hospital population has little change in the extent of malnutrition following admission there is a significant increase in the extent of malnutrition in chronic schizophrenic patients after these patients had been hospitalized eight years.
3. The proportion of patients ten or more pounds underweight is approximately 50 per cent greater in the chronic schizophrenics studied than it is in the entire hospital population and the same proportion is found to be true in the number of those schizophrenics twenty or more pounds underweight.
4. It would appear that the more active patients have the lowest extent and degree of malnutrition and as the patients become less active the extent and degree of malnutrition becomes more marked.
5. There appears to be no significant correlation between the degree of malnutrition and the type of hospital service rendered to the patient.
6. The extent and degree of malnutrition apparently exists completely independent of the serving of adequate calories.
7. The degree of malnutrition in chronic schizophrenics may offer an explanation for some of the commonly noted changes in the cardiac shadow frequently described as the "longitudinal heart of the præcox."
