No abstract

A 21-27-year follow-up was conducted on 140 schizophrenic patients consecutively discharged from the Department of Neuropsychiatry, Gunma University Hospital, between 1958 and 1962, and 130 patients (93%) were successfully evaluated. Of these patients, 105 were still living, and the longitudinal courses could be fully observed in 98. With regard to the social outcome of the 105 patients, 47% were assessed as 'self-supportive' whereas 31% were 'hospitalised'. As for psychopathological outcome, 31% were 'recovered', 46% were 'improved', and 23% were 'unimproved'. In the studies of the longitudinal courses of the 98 patients, fluctuating courses of social adjustment were the most numerous in the early stages, whereas in the later stages many of the patients showed differentiation in one of two directions, namely the 'stable self-supportive' state and the 'chronic institutionalised' state. However, this form of differentiation was not revealed in the distribution of psychopathological 'end states'.

No abstract

When schizophrenia research began in Japan in the late 19th century, it mainly followed the German school. Since World War II, however, Japanese research has been more influenced by the developments in American psychiatry. The research in Japan has included studies in epidemiology, histopathology, cerebral metabolism, animal models using amphetamine, postmortem brain chemistry, psychophysiology, psychopathology, and protective intervention from relapses. Principal domains of current studies are subjective phenomena in psychopathology and biological correlates of cerebral dysfunctioning in schizophrenia.